ISLAMABAD / WASHIN­GTON: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan lashed out at MQM chief Altaf Hussain on Sunday and said that a “legal reference” against his speech in which he made extremely objectionable remarks against Pakistan’s armed forces would be forwarded to the UK authorities.

Mr Hussain, addressing a convention of his party’s workers in Dallas, Texas, from London on Saturday, taunted India for not helping Mohajirs and asked for deployment of Nato and UN troops in Karachi to determine the cause of bloodshed in the city. The speech was heard across the United States by his supporters and other people.

The speech has stirred a controversy that some observers in the US capital said might haunt him and his party for years.

Chaudhry Nisar said at a press conference in Islama­bad: “Another speech has been made from London last night. Its purpose was to insult Pakistan’s institutions, security agencies, armed forces and even the state.”

“We are examining the speech as a disclosure of attempting to abet waging of a war against Pakistan and its institutions. The speech is an admission by the London office of Altaf Hussain, and not the MQM, of a conspiracy against Pakistan to deprive it of its sovereignty and integrity,” the interior minister said while explaining legal points to be raised with the UK authorities.


MQM chief taunts India for not helping Mohajirs, seeks help from UN and Nato in his address from London


“We have started preparing the draft of a legal document which will be sent to the UK government and the Metropolitan Police and it will be made public in a few days.”

The MQM leader said in the speech: “India is coward, totally coward. Even if it had an iota of courage … it would not have allowed the bloodshed of Mohajirs in Pakistan”. He reminded India that those “now being slaughtered in Pakistan” were “sons of its soil and it should not allow them to be slaughtered like this”.

Chaudhry Nisar said the MQM chief’s latest speech was tantamount to “waging a war against the country” because Mr Hussain had publicly asked India to take notice of the plight of the Urdu-speaking people of Pakistan.

Mr Hussain’s telephone address irked the Pakistani community in the US who are planning a protest against this “anti-Pakistan, hate speech”.

According to a transcript released by the MQM, USA, Mr Hussain also asked party activists to approach the United Nations and Nato headquarters in the United States and “inform them of human rights abuses against the Mohajir community.

Only July 30, the MQM sent a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, urging the world body to conduct a probe into the alleged “excesses committed by the paramilitary Rangers” in their ongoing security operation in Karachi.

He (Altaf Hussain) had made an objectionable speech before Eid. “But yesterday’s speech made from a foreign land had crossed all limits”, violating norms of morality, civilisation and laws. “The heads of the institutions were named and insulted. Sarcastic poems were read and baseless allegations were levelled against the army,” Chaudhry Nisar said.

He said that in the speech the MQM chief had called for deployment of Nato forces in Karachi and India’s interference to stop what he called genocide of Mohajirs.

“A patriotic Pakistani can never use such language. It is the language of the enemy.”

He said Mr Hussain did not represent the entire Urdu-speaking community or the Muttahida. “No sane MQM leader will ever associate himself with such remarks. I don’t consider the Urdu-speaking community or the MQM to be against Pakistan. They are as patriotic as the people of any other community which is evident from the celebrations of Pakistan cricket team’s victory against Sri Lanka in Karachi on Saturday night,” he said.

The minister said Altaf Hussain had been frustrated over developments taking place in investigations into Imran Farooq’s murder and money-laundering cases against him in the UK. The cases, he said, had not been registered by the Pakistan government and were currently being heard by UK courts. “The noose around Altaf is being tightened over the two cases filed in London and he is venting his anger on Pakistan and its army,” he said.

He declared that the government of Pakistan would continue its cooperation with the British authorities in the cases.

Chaudhry Nisar said the army and Rangers had no enmity with the Muttahida and they had stated this during a number of meetings. The PML-N respected the MQM’s mandate, he added.

He said the MQM chief had himself called for the arrest of the killers of Dr Imran Farooq, who was murdered in London about five years ago.

In August 2013, he said, MQM leader Dr Farooq Sattar had demanded that Karachi should be handed over to the army. But since the army was busy in the war against terror, the federal government with the consent of all political parties and the Sindh Government decided to assign the task to Rangers.

“The perception that the operation in Karachi is against the MQM or that its only target is one specific party is absolutely wrong because the action has been taken across the board,” he said, adding that only criminal elements within the parties were being targeted. He said activists of the PPP, Sunni Tehreek, Shabab-i-Milli and ANP had also been arrested but no party raised any objection

He claimed that targeted killings had declined by 50 per cent and cases of kidnapping for ransom had dropped by 100 per cent and not a single such case was filed in Karachi in July.

The minister declared that the operation would continue with the same intensity.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2015

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