HYDERABAD: The president of the Qaumi Awami Tehreek (QAT), Ayaz Latif Palijo, has demanded that the government impose a ban on the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and eliminate its militant wing in the wake of startling revelations about the party made in a BBC report.

Mr Palijo said at a press conference at Palijo House here on Saturday that the BBC report proved that MQM was against Sindh and Pakistan. His party would launch a campaign calling for ban on the MQM, end to prolonged loadshedding and corruption from June 28 to July 7, he said.

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Federal minister for interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was still speaking about writing a letter to the UK despite having such clear proof. What more credible proof was required after revelations of the MQM’s Tariq Mir and BBC to take action against the party, he said.

He said that the MQM was more dangerous than the organisations the government had banned over the years. Strict action should be taken against all big fish, instead of going after small fish, he said.

He slammed the Pakistan Peoples Party for defending its politics of reconciliation and its continuous harp on the same tune that every institution should stay within its constitutional limits.

“Has the PPP delivered to people of Sindh? Has the party taken care of people affected by tragedies that traumatised Shikarpur, Safoora Goth and Karachi? And it has left the people of Karachi at the mercy of nature,” he said.

PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and his sister PPP MNA Faryal Talpur were out of the country and MQM chief Altaf Hussain was in London while people of Karachi were dying from natural and man-made calamities, he said.

He said: “The PPP is not fighting for a just cause. It is protecting the interests of its offshore companies and millions of rupees invested in them for maintaining castles and villas abroad,” he said.

He asked under which article of the Constitution, PPP leader Faryal Talpur and MPA Owais Muzaffar alias Tappi were running affairs of Sindh. They had already done irreparable damage to the departments of irrigation, health, communication and works and revenue, he said. Mr Palijo said that his party called for rapid action against PPP leaders, regardless of their political status, membership to parliament, ministries or feudal background.

He demanded imposition of equal duration of loadshedding across the country and said people of Sindh were being discriminated against in distribution of loadshedding.

He held the Water and Power Development Authority and the federal government responsible for the tragic deaths from heatstroke besides the PPP and the MQM.

The QAT believed it was high time people of Sindh and Pakistan got united to safeguard their land. If there was transparency and peace, the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor would bring about prosperity to Sindh and the country but no such corridor would be of any use if there was no transparency in governance and there was no peace, he said.

HCCI rejects early closure of markets

Opposing a decision of the government, Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI) president Goharullah has rejected closure of shops and bazaars till 9pm.

According to a press release issued on Saturday, he was speaking to a delegation of the Anjuman Tajiran Hyderabad led by Saleem Hussain Vohra at the HCCI. Goharullah said the chamber represented all traders and it rejected this decision taken by the Sindh government to close shops and markets at 9pm.

The HCCI president assured the delegation that he would get this issue resolved soon after contacting the Sindh government. He asked the delegation members to contact the Karachi Tajir Ittehad to form a strategy in this regard.

Earlier, Saleem Vohra said there were lacklustre trade activities throughout the year due to poor law and order, power loadshedding and other problems. Now when there was good maintenance of law and order because of Hyderabad SSP Irfan Ali Baloch and all traders were pinning their hopes on Eid season, a decision was imposed to shut down shops at 9pm, he said.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2015

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