People had stood glued to the TV screens for long on Friday to hear MQM chief Altaf Hussain deny the charges former Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza had levelled against him, but their hours-long wait for him to start his address and the subsequent hours-long conference failed to satisfy them. After all, these were no small allegations and the usual rambling, emotionally-charged harangue that he delivered did not seem to be the befitting answer. Mr Hussains dismissal of Dr Mirzas allegations, saying that he neither had responded to his charges earlier, nor he intended doing so now, was not considered enough to rebut the highly serious accusations brought against him. As a result, political parties, media commentators and the public, which had expected these allegations to be the focal point of the conference, were not only put off, but also severely criticised Mr Hussain on this lapse. Mr Hussains was a confusing self-contradictory discourse as well. While, on the one hand, he accused the ANP of receiving millions of dollars from the US, on the other, he admitted that he had no proof of it. Mr Hussain also involved the Jamaat-i-Islami and the ANP in the May 12, 2007, ugly incidents, also maintaining that the ANP wanted to dismember Pakistan and the JI was providing arms to MQM-H for use against MQM-A. Both the parties have denied their involvement, with the ANP saying that 'Altaf was a habitual liar and the JI recalling that the 'politics of bloodshed had started in Karachi with the arrival of the MQM on the scene. Mr Hussains charge that the US and the UK were scheming to undo Pakistan raised questions about his British citizenship and his right to lead a Pakistani political party. If he held Pakistan so dear, he should have, on learning of the conspiracy to dismember it, immediately given up the British nationality and returned to Pakistan. Strangely, he criticises the ISI and, in the same breath, offers the service of the party workers to it for saving Pakistan. At the same time, he threatens to unleash the might of his workers against the government if killings did not stop. His references to the judiciary were equally confusing. He was not opposed to the Chief Justice, but hit out at the judiciary for its past role. The most reprehensible was the charge against the Quaid-i-Azam of being secular. He is on record having favoured the introduction of the golden principles of Islam in Pakistan, making it a fortress of Islam and turning it into an Islamic welfare state. Instead of distorting history and advising others to study it, Mr Hussain had better read some of Pakistans before opening up his mouth on the subject.