The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) is waiting for the government to set up a 'Grievances Redressal Committee' as promised by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, a senior member of the MQM told Business Recorder on Monday. The committee is to look into the party's concerns with respect to the ongoing Rangers operation in Karachi and to determine whether the MQM's allegation that the law enforcement agencies have been targeting only its party workers has merit.
"We will decide about our resignations once the committee is set up as promised by the government," the senior MQM member stated. He said the Prime Minister and JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had committed to the MQM that such a committee would be formed during a meeting held in Islamabad last week but it has not yet been established.
"The law enforcement agencies are still picking up our workers from different areas of Karachi and they are not even being produced before courts," he said. A government official told Business Recorder that the 'Grievances Redressal Committee' would be notified in the next couple of days. "The MQM has approved a draft notification of the committee that also carries the Terms of Reference and Law Division has been vetting it," he said.
To a question about the operation, he said the prime minister has clearly conveyed to the MQM that the operation in Karachi would not stop till permanent peace is achieved. "The Rangers are arresting criminals in Karachi irrespective of their political and religious affiliation," he said, adding that the operation is not against any specific party but is against criminals.
He said the MQM has agreed to present a list of its grievances to the committee that would be vetted by senior parliamentarians for a further action. "We want the MQM to dissociate itself from militants and criminals in Karachi," he said, adding that the MQM is the fourth largest parliamentary party and its genuine grievances would be taken care of. MQM has claimed in recent months that 146 of its activists and workers are missing since the launch of the operation two years ago whereas over 40 have been the victims of extra-judicial killings. JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has been facilitating talks between the MQM and the government and playing a role in convincing the former to withdraw its resignations from the parliament and the Sindh Assembly. Jan Achakzai, a spokesperson for the JUI-F, told Business Recorder that his party has done its job assigned by the prime minister as the MQM is now willing to withdraw its resignations if the government forms the 'Grievances Redressal Committee.' "We hope the government will notify the committee in the next 48 hours. If it is serious about addressing concerns of the MQM and wants to bring the MQM back in the parliament then there is a need to notify the committee," he said.