KARACHI: The Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) on Thursday denounced their former leadership in London which they alleged had asked their supporters in Pakistan to mark August 14 as a “black day”. 

However, PSP chief Syed Mustafa Kamal insisted that those who obeyed the line of London on the country’s Independence Day also included the men from Dr Farooq Sattar’s party.

First it was Mr Kamal — the founding chief of the PSP — who addressed a press conference at the party’s office, bringing media attention to a video circulating on social media that showed masked men burning Pakistani flags.

“These men are actually acting on the instructions of MQM founder Altaf Hussain,” he said. 

“Altaf Hussain had issued an audio message through his website ordering his loyalists to burn flags, share videos and pictures of them doing so on social media and also send them to the party’s London secretariat. He’s spreading propaganda against the state and these flag-burning videos were broadcast on India’s news channels.”

He then targeted the MQM-Pakistan leadership led by Dr Sattar saying that many of his party workers were loyal to the London leadership and included in this anti-state campaign on Independence Day.

“Farooq Sattar’s leader [Altaf Hussain], who calls himself the founder of the party [MQM], had told his supporters to observe a black day and burn flags [on Aug 14],” said Mr Kamal.

Responding to PSP’s allegations in the evening, Dr Sattar did not deny any such anti-Pakistan exercise on Independence Day but reiterated his stance, distancing MQM-P from the London leadership.

“Only a few Pakistanis were incited to commit this act but our patriotism should not be questioned or affected by others’ deeds,” he told reporters at a press conference at the party’s Bahadurabad office. 

“We strongly condemn this crime [flag burning] which was done [by] a few people. The Mohajir community has proven that such acts cannot [dent] their patriotism. Time has proved that we stand with all the ethnicities of Pakistan, be it Punjabis, Sindhis, Pakhtuns, Balochs, Hazaras and Gilgitis and we are sure that they stand with us.”

He called for those who burned the Pakistani flag on the country’s Independence Day to reveal their identities instead of hiding behind masks. On the other hand, he said, the Urdu-speaking community on the 70th anniversary of the country had shown that those who struggled and offered sacrifices for the creation of Pakistan were still loyal to their country.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2017