KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain said on Thursday that Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari had a “deal with the army” and that he had been deceived by him.

“I supported Asif Zardari in tough times when leaders of his own PPP had ditched him ... in return he [Zardari] has deceived me,” said Mr Hussain while speaking from London to an annual assistance programme of the Khidmat-i-Khalq Foundation at the Jinnah ground.

He said that Mr Zardari had a deal with generals which still existed.

He said Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif also criticised the army when they were not in power. “Recently Asif Zardari openly spoke against the army” but no action was taken against him.

Says PPP chief has a ‘deal with the army’

He said the Sindh government was equally to blame for “injustices to MQM and Muhajirs”. “I thought the former president (Asif Zardari) wanted to do something positive for Pakistan, but I did not know his aim was to loot Pakistan.”

He asked whether it was a crime to engage in a peaceful protest against illegal and unconstitutional actions.

Mr Hussain said the Rangers director general had issued a directive to arrest “sector and unit in charges” of the MQM. “Under what charges they are being arrested,” he asked.

He said senior officials of the Army had told him that they were “shaking hands with the MQM” after removing all misgivings about him. He urged those officers to ask the present army leadership to stop “excesses against us”.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2015

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