KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan demanded on Saturday that its “missing” workers be recovered immediately and if someone was facing any allegation he should be produced in a court of law.

Speaking at a press conference at the party’s temporary headquarters in Bahadurabad, where the Muttahida recently moved from PIB Colony, MQM leader Faisal Sabzwari said the number of “missing” party workers had risen to 150 and some of them had died in custody and were buried anonymously.

He said the PPP was protesting against the disappearance of three aides of former president Asif Zardari, but it had a different policy for the “missing” workers of the MQM.

Recently, he said, a police officer told a court that the MQM’s missing workers were not actually missing as they had gone to India [to escape arrest]. “It is my request that the case of the missing aides of Zardari sahib also be handed over to this officer so that he could disclose whether they [missing aides] had gone to India or Iran,” he remarked.

Mr Sabzwari said there was a need to recover the “missing” workers instead of levelling false allegations that they had gone to India.

He said the workers of the MQM should also be given the same rights being given to those of other political parties in Pakistan. “Our workers should be equally considered Pak­istanis,” he added.

Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Khwaja Izharul Hasan said the missing persons’ case was more important than the Panama Papers case.

Mr Sabzwari said the MQM-P won all six union committees in Karachi, Mir­purkhas and Sukkur with a heavy margin in the April 13 by-elections. “The results are the writing on the wall for all those who claim that the vote bank of the MQM had been divided.”

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2017