KARACHI, Sept 23: Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Altaf Hussain has assured the people of Pakistan that his party is not against the poor and middle-class people of Punjab, says a press release.

He said we want to free the deprived people of Sindh, Balochistan, the NWFP and Punjab from the mediaeval feudal system. He invited the poor and middle-class people of Sindh, Balochistan and the NWFP to save Pakistan.

Speaking to a public gathering organized by the MQM United Kingdom unit in London, he reflected upon feudal system, sense of deprivation among smaller provinces, and the problems faced by poor and middle-class people.

Mr Hussain said that it is irony of fate that those who sacrificed for the creation of Pakistan are being labelled traitors. “Late G.M. Syed who voted and passed the resolution in favour of Pakistan was labelled as traitor. When Muslims of the Muslim minority provinces of the subcontinent, who sacrificed their lives and worldly possessions for the creation of Pakistan, demanded their rights they were also labelled as traitors. Whereas the people of the Punjab province where the Muslim League faced defeat and the Unionist Party loyal to the British Raj formed the government are being proudly labelled as ‘loyal to the country’.”

Mr Hussain said that to disagree is a democratic right of everybody. The democratic people should respect criticism. “However based on disagreement branding somebody as traitor, anti-state or security risk does in no way serve the interest of the nation or of the country.”

Mr Hussain said that it was made impossible for him and his companions to survive in the motherland and today he, along with hundreds of companions, is living in exile.

Citing the Humoodur Rehman Commission Report, he said the Generals found responsible for the breakup of the country were not punished and today they proudly walk around the country. He said that different accusations were and are being levelled against him.

He said that if these allegations were true then after 11 years of state operation the people would not have continued to support him and the MQM. He said that his biggest mistake was that he refused to be one of the establishment and tow their policies.

On several occasions, he said, the establishment tried to buy him off but he refused to trade his conscience, his mission and his cause. He said that he refused such offers because he is not struggling for personal gains but for the attainment of the rights of the poor and middle-class people of the country.

He said that during his meetings with the presidents and prime ministers he had always put forward the problems faced by the public.

Mr Hussain claimed that his only crime is that he speaks and struggles for the abolishment of the mediaeval feudal system. “It is the political culture of Pakistan that one brother is in a political party, the other in another political party, the third one in some other political party and the fourth one is in the army. Therefore whichever political party comes into power or martial law is declared, such families always win. Through such manipulations for the past 55 years families of a few feudal lords and waderas have been ruling the country.”

JAMAAT: Syed Munawar Hussan, a leader of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and general secretary of Jamat-i-Islami on Monday slammed the regime for surrendering to the dictates of the World Bank and IMF and for rendering the people jobless and pushing up the costs of utilities.