KARACHI - The MQM Coordination Committee condemned the statement given by Leader of Opposition Syed Khursheed Shah and dubbed the statement as abusive to the Urdu speaking community of Sindh.
Addressing a press conference at Khursheed Bagum Secretariat on Friday, MQM leader Haider Abbas Rizvi demanded an apology from PPP leader Khursheed Shah ahead of the abusive remarks for the people migrated from India at the time of partition in 1947.
Terming the Shah statement discriminatory and would spill over the ethnicity in the province.
Rizvi said, “We are not refugees in here, explained that the refugees live in camp while we are the immigrants who have migrated willingly to Pakistan.” He said that muhajirs in Pakistan have had rushed after enormous sacrifices including 2 million precious lives, property of worth billions of rupees and their love once. He said that Khursheed Shah should understand the difference and the fact between the refugees and muhajirs. He cited a recent column of an analyst in local newspaper Haider and said that ‘muhajirs’ are the owner of 80 percent Sindh.
“There are international agreements between Pakistan and India which suggests that muhajir’ deserves ownership of land in Sindh.” He alleged that over 10 million acres land is occupied illegally by landlords of Sindh. Rizvi said that ‘muhajir’ is a word mentioned in the Holly Quran with abundance. He declined to give permit to Khursheed Shah for using abusive remarks for muhajirs.
Various conspires has been hatching against the MQM since the day, party demanded 20 administrative units across the country. He urged the religious scholars and clerics to review the Khursheed Shah remarks for word muhajir weather the statement is considered as blasphemous or not. Haider citing the question raised by the journalist to Khursheed Shah was about the concerns of the MQM and muhajir ahead of the distribution of government jobs but Shah did not answered the query and responded that “the word muhajir is an abusive word for me”.
He said that the PPP is the political party divided the province while introducing the Quota System.
There are not even 20 muhajir police officers among the 500 in total Sindh and asked to unveiled the share of Urdu-speaking among the six lacs government employees.  He said that at the time when the PPP is holding a grand show in Karachi and MQM chief Altaf Hussain has promoted peace and reconciliation. He added that no one can be allowed to abuse either a nation or the identity of ‘muhajir’.
Meanwhile, MQM-Haqqiqi chairman Afaq Ahmed condemning Khursheed Shah`s statement said that the PPP wanted to start ethnic war in Sindh. In a statement here on Friday, he said, ‘We respect every community residing in province but would not tolerate any offensive and hateful speech against the muhajirs.” He said history of the Sindh province shows that Sindh remained the slave of Hindu residents before the partition. “Our forefathers’ struggle and sacrifices got the country freedom, he added. He said that it is unfortunate that the people those remained slaves of Hindus in past instead of being grateful to muhajirs were using abusive words against them.