PM avoiding meeting MQM representatives

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is consciously avoiding meeting Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) representatives despite their request so that no wrong message is signalled to the law enforcement agencies engaged in the targeted operation against extortionists, target killers, kidnappers for ransom and mafias in Karachi.
“As per his policy, the prime minister is not averse to receiving any political party but this is not the opportune time for a session with the MQM,” a senior informed source told The News.When contacted MQM leader Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui told The News that a meeting has been sought with the prime minister, but they have not so far got any intimation about it.
“We want to bring to the notice of Nawaz Sharif our complaints and reservations so that the facts and fiction are differentiated,” he said. “There is a hell of difference between reality and the stories that have been weaved.”
He said that the MQM has repeatedly made it clear that it was not against anti-criminal operation, but it should not be singled out and discriminated against.The official source stated that though indirectly the prime minister has answered the questions more than once that the MQM wanted to raise with him, by saying that the campaign was not directed against any specific political party but was aimed at only criminals regardless of their political affiliations. He also reiterated his resolve in Karachi on Wednesday.
He pointed out that Nawaz Sharif has repeatedly declared after the March 11 raid by the Rangers on the MQM headquarters Nine-Zero that the operation was launched after consultations with all the political parties. This, too, is intended to convey to the MQM that it was included among those stakeholders, he said.
While talking about the campaign, the prime minister, in his address to the Karachi Stock Exchange awards ceremony on Wednesday, particularly mentioned that Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad was also present among those discussants, which was meant to tell the MQM that it was part of this process.
The source said that it was a hard fact that the convicted killer of Geo TV reporter Wali Babar and some other hardened criminals were arrested during the Rangers raid on Nine-Zero. “How can the MQM deny all this?”
He said even if a meeting is now held between the prime minister and an MQM delegation, which though has a remote possibility in the near future, Nawaz Sharif has nothing to offer to relent on the ongoing operation. “The prime minister has earlier emphasized more than one that no political party is the target.”
The source said the MQM is required to pay its attention to the question as to why target killings in Karachi stopped immediately after the Sindh Rangers’ operation at the Nine-Zero, and who was previously doing all this bloodshed.
“Just one raid has helped save dozens of lives that would have been lost over the past two weeks since March 11,” he said. “This welcome truth has been noted by the prime minister and everyone else with immense satisfaction. It has encouraged everybody to not only continue but intensify the operation in Karachi. This is what the people of Karachi in particular and Pakistanis in general have been yearning since long.”
To a question, the source said the Sindh governor should have read the message and quit voluntarily, but he is sadly clinging to the gubernatorial office although he is no more being involved in matters related to the targeted operation.
The source said that the governor was deliberately not invited to the high level consultations on the operation in Karachi to tell that he was no more required now, whereas Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah was in attendance.
This is the first time that the longest serving governor has been intentionally kept away from such discussions. The MQM has no plan to ask him to call it a day. Altaf Hussain said the other day that Ishratul Ebad has not given any indication to go home.
According to the source, the federal government is avoiding the governor’s sacking and has been waiting for him to leave. “But sooner or later, he will be sent home if he doesn’t opt for his exit.”