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KARACHI/LAHORE, July 9: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has strongly condemned a joint declaration made at London’s Multi-Party Conference (MPC) and has stated that the conference does not aim to promote democracy in the country.
The clause to which the MQM objects declares that none of the parties participating in the two-day MPC will consent to an alliance with the MQM at either the federal or provincial levels of government.
The conference also held General Pervez Musharraf, the governor of Sindh, the chief minister of Sindh and the MQM responsible for the May 12 violence in Karachi and demanded that the UK government take action against MQM chief Altaf Hussain.
In reply, the MQM condemned the MPC joint declaration and termed it the Opposition Parties Conference. An emergency meeting of the MQM coordination committee was held on Monday where serious concern was expressed and the MPC resolution was held to be a conspiracy against 98 per cent of Pakistan’s population.
PPP, ANP blamed
At a subsequent press conference, provincial minister and member of the MQM coordination committee Shoaib Bukhari said that the parties participating in the MPC blamed the MQM for the May 12 violence in Karachi despite the fact that they were themselves involved. “The Awami National Party (ANP), led by Asfandyar Wali, was involved in the bloodshed and the Pakistan People’s Party’s Sherry Rehman, who participated in the MPC, was also directly involved,” said Mr Bukhari.
The MQM politician accused the parties in the MPC of supporting Lal Masjid terrorists and asked why they had not condemned killings in various incidents of armed insurgency, suicide attack, bomb blast and terrorism in the NWFP and Balochistan.
Referring to the MPC resolution’s clause that no participating party will form a future government with the MQM, Mr Bokhari said that these parties had, in the past, always initiated contact with the MQM in London or its headquarters at Nine Zero in Karachi to ask for cooperation in government. He asserted that the MQM enjoyed the full support of its people and did not need an alliance with any other party. Mr Bokhari said that the MQM had been the only party to start work on rescuing the flood victims in the south of the country, while opposition parties abandoned the masses in favour of attending conferences in London. Mr Bokhari added that the opposition parties were against Mr Altaf because he did not belong to the feudal class, and has never plundered the national exchequer.
Inviting another debacle?
Dr Farooq Sattar, Deputy Convener of the MQM’s central coordination committee, told Dawn on Monday in Lahore that the opposition parties resolve to isolate the MQM was not only a conspiracy against the country’s political forces but also amounted to insulting the public mandate being given by the entire urban Sindh since 1985.
“This (the decision) has a precedence only in the case of the middle-class Awami League after the 1970 elections when the parties in this part of Pakistan, mostly belonging to the feudal class, resolved to boycott the then largest parliamentary party at the behest of the country’s Establishment; this decision only culminated in the emergence of Bangladesh,” Dr Sattar said.
He said the MQM would fight the conglomerate of opposition parties politically, and would not allow them to create another Sheikh Mujibur Rehman and harm the unity and integrity of the country.
‘Baseless allegations’
Speaking to party workers over the telephone, Mr Hussain said in London that opposition political and religious parties wanted to eliminate the MQM but would fail because the MQM was a well-organised party with strong roots in the masses. He accused the opposition of levelling baseless allegations against his party and said that their real face had been exposed by the fact that they were busy hatching conspiracies in London, while the MQM was helping the thousands of people affected by the floods.
