Army should intervene: Altaf

Chief of Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) Altaf Hussain has said that although more than three generations of the Mohajirs are buried in Sindh some of the chauvinist Sindhis refuse to accept them as the rightful citizens or the indigenous people of Sindh. He was addressing a gathering of office-bearers of various wings of the party, sectors and units.
Members of the Co-ordination Committee and parliamentarians were also present on this occasion. Altaf said that he gave the notice of 48 hours to the government for stopping the killings of innocent people and to apprehend the terrorists, who were not only destroying the means of livelihood of poor people but were also burning down their houses. "I would like to ask as to what the crime of the innocent Mohajirs is".
He said that the government had failed to control the law and order situation in Karachi. The Army and Rangers should come to Karachi and protect the lives of innocent people. They should take undiscriminating actions against the elements responsible for creating bloodbath, and setting houses and properties on fire. The culprits should be arrested even if they belong to MQM. He said that likewise if the criminals belonged to the PPP and the ANP they should also be brought to book.
Altaf rejected the notion that there was a war of survival going on in Karachi. He said that there was not a single instance of targeted killing and burning of houses when this government was not in power. Addressing President Zardari, Prime Minister Gillani and Chief Minister of Sindh he said that the official patronage to the terrorists and criminals of 'Peoples Amn Committee' and gang war thugs must stop. He said that MQM was always blamed for the failing law and order situation in Karachi and everything that went wrong here by certain elements despite the fact that the problem existed even before the emergencies of the MQM on the scene.
He said that there was no MQM in 1964, but people of Karachi are witness to the fact that they were punished for their support to the sister of the Founding Father of the country in the presidential elections against the military dictator General Ayub Khan. He said that truckloads of heavily armed Pathans were brought into Karachi from the then NWFP who attacked the Muhajir community. Their houses were set on fire; women were dishonoured; and thousands of people were butchered just because they had supported Miss Fatima Jinnah in the elections.
Altaf castigated the analysts, journalists and anchor persons who are saying that the situation in Karachi was deteriorating because of the PPP, ANP and the MQM, without realising that the same situation existed in 1964 despite the fact that there was no MQM on the scene in 1964.
He said that more than one hundred poor people living at the bottom of the hills were killed in Qasba Aligarh Colony. The bloodbath of the innocent people of Qasba Aligarh continued without stopping for four days but the police, rangers, provincial government and the federal government were nowhere to be seen. He asked if these innocent and poor people climbed the hills to resort to firing from there.
Hussain said that in 1973 hardened criminals were taken out of jails in order to punish the Mohajirs whose localities were attacked from Larkana to Karachi. He asked if there was the MQM in 1973. He said that it was because of the persistent victimisation, discrimination and biased treatment given to the Mohajirs that the MQM came into being. He said that there used to be special notes in the advertisement for government jobs that the people living in Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur need not apply. The discriminatory quota system was implemented in Sindh province only. It was because of these flagrant injustices that the Mohajir youths got united and started a long struggle for their rights.
He said that the international community should plead the case of the Mohajirs with the people at the helm of affairs in Pakistan. He asserted that the Mohajirs were true Pakistanis and they would not be thrown into the Arabian Sea. He said that the scope of the MQM had been widened and now it had in its fold people belonging to all ethnic and linguistic groups living in the country. The MQM was struggling to put an end to the obsolete and decadent feudal system. He said that Pakistan was the only country in the world where this outmoded system still held sway.
He said that the MQM wanted to empower the poor and middle class people in the country. He asked the international community and the ruling establishment as to how long will they continue to lend support the corrupt feudal system in the country. The MQM is not against Pakistan. It is against this corrupt and corrupting feudal system. Altaf lashed out at the analysts and anchor persons who always said that political parties in the country had a dynastic culture without realising that the MQM was the only political party in the country that was completely free from the taint of dynastic politics. He said that he had always preached peace, harmony and brotherhood. He appealed to his workers to restrain their emotions and bear with patience.