Every domain in Pakistan, including national sovereignty, has been usurped, Chief of Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) Altaf Hussain said on Sunday. He was addressing the start ceremony of an annual assistance program by a charity organisation - Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation (KKF) - run by his party at Jinnah Ground in Azizabad.
Urging armed forces and the country's premier intelligence agency ISI to make efforts for saving the country, he said that political and religious leaders and businessmen, too, should come forward to save the country from disintegration and ensure a prosperous future.
Altaf Hussain said that the support to terrorists should stop and provinces should be given full autonomy. "Confrontation between parliament and the judiciary must be defused in the larger interest of the people."
He said that the country was passing through a critical phase, reminding that people at the helm of affairs had been warned about looming threats in 1971. "They were advised to work with knowledge and (good) judgement." But, he said, at that time, the civilian and military authorities had chose to ignore the warnings, adding that it resulted in the dismemberment of the country.
He said that the country was again passing through similar circumstances.
According to him, life of the common man had been made miserable by shortages of natural gas and electricity, poverty, unemployment and rising cost of living.
Businessmen, he said, were relocating their businesses abroad because of the deteriorating law and order situation in the country, while businessmen who stayed behind were "demanding arms licenses" for protecting themselves.
Sindh, he said, was the land of peace but members of the Hindu community were migrating to India because of growing insecurity. Referring to the famous speech by the Quaid-i-Azam to the Legislative Assembly on August 11, 1948, he said that freedom obtained in 1947 was held hostage by powerful elements. He was of the view that politics in the country was also not free and it was tainted by a culture of dynastic politics. He said: "MQM is the only political party that is free from the abominable culture of hereditary politics."
Without naming anyone, Altaf Hussain said that a notorious terrorist, who did not even have sufficient money to buy food, had been given bungalows in the Defence area of Karachi. He said that he had brought this to the notice of the president and the federal interior minister but no action was taken.
He said that armed forces, military institutions, ISI, Rangers, police, judiciary and political and religious forces should all learn from past mistakes. Everyone, he said, should work to save Pakistan from disintegration and work for making Pakistan a prosperous country.
He said that realities should be accepted and a consensus strategy should be agreed upon for saving Pakistan. If politicians could forge unity on a single-point agenda of national security by learning from past mistakes, prosperity and progress could be ensured.
Prominent nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan also addressed the gathering.
He said that an international conspiracy was behind the deteriorating situation in Pakistan, adding that the country was "near collapse".
"Unfortunately, the government and its coalition partners have failed to control power cuts, targeted killings and extortion in the country, particularly in Karachi," Dr Qadeer said.
The nuclear scientist said that the problem of power outages could have been easily resolved, but regretted that the crisis had not been overcome despite the passage of over four years of government in power. He said that poor people should not be considered helpless and weak, as there is a limit of their patience. Dr A Q Khan said that the law and order situation in Karachi was bad. Dr Farooq Sattar and others also spoke on the occassion.
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