KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan head Dr Farooq Sattar said on Wednesday that the people of Karachi wanted “targeted development” alongside the targeted operation.

However, he appeared quite perturbed about a clash between workers of MQM-Pakistan and MQM-London close to a monument in Azizabad, Yadgar-i-Shuhada, where Mayor Waseem Akhtar wanted to go to pay his respect following his release from prison.

The MQM leader directly blamed the Altaf Hussain-led MQM for all the trouble witnessed in Azizabad due to which the law enforcement agencies stopped the city mayor’s rally at the Allahwali Chowrangi.

“Whatever happened today at Yadgar-i-Shuhda happened at the behest of [MQM] London,” he told a press conference at the party’s temporary headquarters in PIB Colony. “They insulted the sacrifices rendered by our martyrs and prisoners.”

Accompanied by the city mayor and other leaders, he said his party maintained peace and foiled a conspiracy to divide the people. “This was a conspiracy to destroy peace in the city...We will not allow it to succeed.”

He asked the people to beware of such a conspiracy that, according to him, was aimed at splitting their vote bank whenever elections were held.

In a direct reference to the Rangers-led Karachi operation that completed three years in September, Dr Sattar said that the people of the metropolis now wanted to see targeted development alongside the targeted operation.

Speaking on the occasion, Mayor Akhtar urged all the people to work together for the betterment of the metropolis. “We want to work with good intentions...Please allow us to work.”

He said that he was planning to visit all political parties, including the Pakistan Peoples Party, Jamaat-i-Islami, PML-N, to seek their cooperation.

Distancing himself from the MQM-London, he said the mandate he got was on the decision of Aug 23 — a reference to Dr Sattar’s press conference in which he dissociated himself and the party from Mr Hussain and his London secretariat a day after his Aug 22 anti-Pakistan tirade.

Earlier in the day, Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Khwaja Izhar-ul-Hasan said the MQM did not need any leader from outside and the slot, if ever fell vacant, would be filled by someone from within the party.

He said his party’s doors had always been open to everyone, including former president Pervez Musharraf and ex-governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan, and they could join the MQM whenever they wanted.

He asked the authorities to release all political prisoners languishing in prison for long on false charges.

Meanwhile, the MQM-London condemned the baton-charge by police on party workers and arrest of many of them at Mukka Chowk for raising pro-Altaf slogans.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2016