KARACHI, March 11: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement on Thursday accused the Pakistan Peoples Party of resorting to 'terrorism' and otherwise exploiting the murder of Abdullah Murad for destabilizing the provincial government.
Addressing a news conference at the Karachi Press Club, the MQM's parliamentary leader in the National Assembly, Dr Farooq Sattar, claimed: "The way the PPP has resorted to terrorism during the past five days - killing and wounding many MQM activists and other people, besides damaging property - shows that it is not at all perturbed over the deplorable murder of Abdullah Murad.
"The PPP is exploiting Abdullah Murad's murder to recover its rapidly falling support level by portraying itself as the victim, as it had done in the case of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his two sons' murder."
Flanked by Shamim Ahmad, Kunwar Naveed, and Abdul Quddoos MPA, he alleged that the PPP was trying to destroy the peace of the industrial and business metropolis with a view to destabilizing the government.
Referring to the incidents in which the MQM supporters were allegedly killed or wounded by the PPP activists, Dr Farooq Sattar also said that some unknown people, through an E-mail on his mobile phone on March 8, had threatened to kill him.
Cautioning the PPP leadership not to push his supporters to the wall and put them in a situation where they lose patience, Dr Sattar appealed to the president, prime minister and governor to take serious notice of what he called terrorism let loose by the PPP activists. He called for taking action against such elements according to the law.
Dr Sattar was of the view that the murder of Abdullah Murad was deplorable, adding that the MQM was among the parties that had demanded judicial inquiry into the incident. But he asked why the PPP had not protested in the same manner on the killing of Hajra and Sassi.
He said launching protest campaigns was the democratic right of the PPP but it could not be allowed to destroy the peace and kill other people. Dr Sattar narrated the incidents since March 6 in which, according to him, the home and hotel of the MQM's candidate for NA 258 - Ameer Hussain Shah Lakhiari - were attacked. A petrol pump was also torched.