karachi
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Chief Altaf Hussain, raising various questions, asked the establishment to clarify if they considered Mohajir community Pakistani or not.
Addressing the party workers’ meeting at Lal Qila ground, Azizabad, through video link on Saturday night, Hussain said earlier he had put 14 questions to Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif about the behaviour of paramilitary forces and the army towards the MQM.
He said that for a long time MQM had remained the main target of the security agencies. Police, Rangers and Army stormed the houses of Mohajirs and disregarded the Mohajir community. Even in the recent raids at the party offices and workers, the security agencies labelled them as Indian and RAW agents. “They threaten us and sat they will carry out genocide of the Mohajirs if they refuse to go back to India,” he added.
Hussain said: “Our forefathers did not create Pakistan to see their next generations being racially abused in their own country. I refuse to believe that the security agencies are not racists towards the Mohajirs.”
He further said that the Mohajir community was being discriminated and treated as second-class citizens since the establishment of Pakistan. The series of conspiracies against the Mohjairs started with the assassination of the first prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan; even the Mohajirs were removed from their government jobs during every government; discrimination with the Mohajirs has never stopped weather it was the era of Yahya Khan or Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Altaf lamented.
Addressing intellectuals of the country, Hussain asked them to visit Sindh Secretariat, the Sindh CM House and other provincial government offices and see how many people from Mohajir community were working there.
“Zulfikar Ali Bhutto imposed quota system in 1973 for 10 years with an impression that it would equalise the amenities of urban and rural Sindh. Over 40 years the province has been witnessing quota system in Sindh, but no party except MQM ever raised voice against it,” said Hussain.
He said that in 1971 Urdu-speaking people fought the war against the Bengali extremists along with the Pakistan Army, but they were still being considered as the enemies of the country.
He questioned what the reason was behind the crackdown on MQM in 1992. MQM was always blamed for torturing opponents and winning polls at gunpoint. “But we never raised weapons even when General Naseer AKhter during the 1993 general elections stated that MQM could contest from nowhere in the country,” he contended.
The MQM chief said his party believed in talks and always avoided clash as matters could only be resolved through dialogue not through clash.
“I ask Pakistani Army to tell us clearly if they consider us Pakistanis or not,” said the MQM chief, stating that if they really wanted to fight Mohajirs, they should fight like real men.
Hussain said that he had been reorganising the party structure. “During this exercise, I will expel the agents of agencies from MQM while Minus-Altaf formula will only allow my workers to do anything they want to do,” he warned.
Criticising Pakistan People’s Party, Hussain said that the party did nothing for the progress of Sindh despite ruling the province for a long time. “Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah is our elder and I cannot say anything about him as he doesn’t know what is happening around him. PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has appointed the chief minister, using the term “Saien Saien,” the MQM chief said.
Speaking about the demand of new provinces, the MQM chief said he always considered Sindh as his mother. “We don’t want to divide Sindh; rather we are seeking administrative division and it can be named as North Sindh, South Sindh, East Sindh and West Sindh,” said Hussain.
Altaf announced MQM would soon hold a countrywide protest, demanding fundamental rights of the citizens and elimination of the feudal system from the country. He regretted the feudal system was still present in the country despite several military rules.
He said MQM had faced a lot of violence at the hands of the establishment. Addressing the PPP patron-in-chief, he said Bilawal had not so far borne even two blows of a ‘boot’.