LARKANA: Adviser to the chief minister on information Maula Bakhsh Chandio has advised the Muttahida Qaumi Move-ment to go to courts to seek legal remedy for the charges they face and come clean about them.

He denied razing MQM offices in Karachi and Hyderabad saying that the Sindh government was not involved in it. “We were told that only encroachments were being removed,” he said.

Mr Chandio told journalists after speaking at a PPP workers’ convention at a local hotel here on Friday night that the PPP had neither jailed Karachi mayor-elect Waseem Akhtar nor indulged in political victimisation of any individual or group.

He said in response to a question that Pakistan was a country of Asif Ali Zardari’s ancestors as well. Mr Zardari had not escaped from the country in the dead of night, he had gone openly and would return openly, he said.

He said that PPP leaders had faced corruption charges in the past and its leaders remained in jail even after being elected members of parliament.

Mr Chandio said the government was not opposed to giving powers to newly elected local government representatives. They would be entrusted powers in accordance with the law and the Constitution, he said.

He said that he was confident anyone blamed in Panama leaks would definitely have to face the music.

Senior Minister for Food Nisar Ahmed Khuhro also addressed the convention.

PSP wants reference against Muttahida

Senior vice chairmen of Pak Sarzameen Party Anis Ahmed Khan and Dr Saghir Ahmed have said Dr Farooq Sattar is trying to befool the establishment and Urdu-speaking community and called upon the federal interior minister to file a reference under Article 17(2) against MQM.

At a press conference in Latifabad late on Friday night, the leaders urged all MQM parliamentarians to come clean about the charges they faced and denounced MQM chief Altaf Hussain’s disparaging remarks about the country in his speeches to workers.

Anis Ahmed Khan said that whenever Altaf Hussain found his grip loosing on the system he had created he resorted to Pakistan-bashing. After having apologized for his earlier remarks, Mr Hussain again badmouthed Pakistan in his speech to party meeting in the US, in which he sought help from Pakistan’s arch enemies, he said.

“MQM’s legislators should come clean about their dissociation from Altaf Hussain and make a clear announcement in this regard at a press conference. Only then the ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogan being raised by them now will be acknowledged,” he said. He urged Nisar Ali Khan to expedite measures to ban MQM.

Dr Saghir Ahmed said that Sattar’s move to launch MQM Pakistan after the Aug 22 episode was the country’s darkest hour in the history. Shortly afterwards, Mr Hussain sought help from Israel and India to help him break up Pakistan, he said.

“No good could be expected from Sattar as he always prefers to save his skin. He created a similar MQM in 1992 when offices were sealed and talked about Baani-e-Tehreek [party’s founder],” he said. At that time Azeem Ahmed Tariq and S.M. Tariq were murdered, he said.

He said that Sattar had promised to the Rangers DG he would announce dissociation from Mr Hussain. “He had earlier struck a deal to help Hyder Rizvi and Wasay Jalil escape,” Dr Saghir charged.

He said that today leaders were tweeting on social media. He branded Sattar the puppet of the establishment. Sattar was befooling Mr Hussain, Mohajirs and the establishment. “MQM doesn’t enjoy Mohajirs’ mandate and Sattar is too ‘innocent’ that when his coordinator died in custody he was dancing somewhere. In view of his claim of three-days, he said, Nisar Ali Khan should send a reference under Article 17(2) which was pushed aside by money laundering and Imran Farooq murder cases.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2016