KARACHI, June 17: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain has said that if in order to continue their oppressive policies the fuedals and the army did not give rights to the people in 1971, resulting in dismemberment of Pakistan. If they persist in their wrong policies, the country may face the same fate.

Speaking at the foundation day of the APMSO in London, Mr Hussain said that in the budget Rs146 billion had been earmarked for the defence sector on the plea that the rise in the defence budget of India had necessitated such a rise in Pakistan’s defence budget.

“If the budget had been spent on the welfare of the soldiers, we would not have objected to it. But the problem is that the money goes into the pocket of corrupt armymen.”

He observed that if the United Nations had to resolve the Kashmir dispute, why hefty defence allocations had been made in budgets in the past.

“When I speak against corrupt armymen, the army thinks I am speaking against it. I am not against the army. Far from it, I actually sympathize with low-ranking officers. But I am against corrupt army officers who have enriched themselves at the expense of the people.”

He warned that if the establishment continued to lord over the people, the rule of the bureaucracy not ended and the people not given their rights, the country would face the situation it had faced in 1971.