KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Dr Farooq Sattar said that it was wrong impression that MQM was begging for a meeting with the prime minister.He said this while speaking at the Geo News programme “Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Saath” on Wednesday. “We had asked for time to meet the prime minister during the meeting held in connection with Judicial Commission to speak on the issues of Karachi. The prime minister had agreed and we are still waiting for a reply,” he said and added, “We did not insist on a meeting while the prime minister was in Karachi.” He said an impression was developing that an effort was being made to eliminate the MQM in the name of eliminating crimes and criminals. He opined that the opponents of the MQM managed to grab an opportunity to conduct media trial of the MQM in the wake of the raid of the Rangers. The impression was being created that the MQM was patronising certain people who were arrested from areas around Nine-Zero, while the MQM was attempting to get rid of this assumption, but the wrong impression was being relived. Farooq Sattar said there was an unannounced suspension of the political activities of the MQM, most of the offices of the party were closed down and lady workers had been deputed at its units and sectors. He said the MQM had been raising voice against extrajudicial killings of party activists and not on the arrest of its workers. Farooq Sattar said there were a large number of Taliban in Karachi and the city was turning into a centre of international terrorism. It was the scheme to eliminate Taliban according to the National Action Plan (NAP) and they stood with the Army, Rangers and political parties on this front. Farooq Sattar reiterated that there was no organised militant wing of the MQM. However, he agreed, there could be one or more criminals in the party and that was the case with any political party. He offered that the MQM would cooperate if intelligence on such black sheep in the party was shared, as it would be a great help for the MQM. Farooq Sattar said they would appreciate if prime minister owned the operation against the MQM. In case he had the same frame of mind that he had in 1998, it would mean that he was on the same route leading to dictatorship. He reminded that Nawaz Sharif had imposed Governors’ Rule in 1998 and had sacrificed his government as he had stopped the democratic process. It was only after ten months of taking that step that his government had gone. He said in his view Asif Ali Zardari was all in all in Sindh government. He pointed out that the chief minister had stated that he was not aware of the raid on Nine-Zero. But the CM’s spokesman was also not aware of the situation. Referring to Imran Khan, the MQM leader said his Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) came to the political arena in 2013 elections with support of Taliban and the MQM was stopped from election campaigning. But despite that hindrance the MQM contested the elections and won it with the support of the people. It appeared that Karachi had suddenly become important this time and the MQM was a sitting duck for them. He pointed out that there was political bargaining and the MQM’s ground was being offered to all.Farooq Sattar said all the weapons found from Nine-Zero were licensed and the details would be furnished to the Rangers by tomorrow. Every single person went personally to the Azizabad police station and presented details of the weapons. He said the MQM had no objection to the arrest of some wanted people held from the areas around Nine-Zero. MQM would have no objection if the action was launched against criminal elements only. He demanded that a judicial commission should be formed to probe all these matters. Regarding Ishratul Ebad, he said the efforts of the governor for political stability were known to everyone. He recalled that all complicacies and all differences were solved at the Governor’s House and questioned why the governor was kept away from the meeting. Federal Minister for Information Pervaiz Rashid said the prime minister is the prime minister for all. He said it was not correct to say that he refused a meeting with the MQM. He said the Rangers was neither a political party nor was under the influence of any political party, therefore, all should assist the Rangers in their efforts. All of the arrested criminals would be produced in the courts and it would be the responsibility of the Rangers to get them punished on the basis of the evidence against them. The courts would definitely do justice if any innocent had been arrested. He pointed out that criminals and convicts had been found from the areas around Nine-Zero, however, the Rangers did not act against the MQM, its elected representatives, or the sanctity of the offices of the MQM. Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon said claiming the credit of Karachi operation by prime minister was not justified. He said the federal government did not provide any financial assistance for law and order of the city. Memon said the law and order situation in Sindh was fine. The police and Rangers were doing very well in Karachi. He said the PPP had reservations over the Rangers’ raid on the house of Altaf Husain’s sister. He said Sindh chief minister lauded the Rangers for arresting criminal elements. He pointed out that the chief minister was the captain of the Karachi operation and the Sindh government provided all possible help to police and Rangers. He said the chief minister had given free hand to law-enforcing agencies to take action wherever there were reports of the presence of criminals. He said the Rangers and police would seek permission of the chief minister to carry out operation at 2.00am. Sharjeel Memon said there was no objection to removing of barriers by Rangers. He said the road was not affected by the wall around Bilawal House. The wall blocking the road had not be been built by the PPP or Bilawal House, but was built by police and special branch for security reasons as former president and PPP co-chairman resides there. He said similar was the case with the residence of former president Pervez Musharraf, where many roads had been blocked. Giving his analysis on the matters and the situations discussed during the programme, Shahzeb Khanzada said there was ban in the country on Youtube but all the accounts of terrorists were freely operating on the internet. There were so many blogs, which were out of the sight of concerned agencies of the government. He said the Pakistan Army and the government were achieving successes but the government was not taking into account the activities of the terrorists on the social media. He pointed out that the Taliban on their media cell - Omar Media keep claiming responsibility of terrorist activities. The Omar Media remained engaged in its activities on Twitter, Facebook and website but the government had failed to block it. The spokesman for the Taliban, Ehsanullah Ehsan was also running his website account, which was also being avoided by the government. The interior minister was assigned under the National Action Plan to observe anti-government activities on the internet and social media but no steps had been taken by the ministry so far.Continuing his analysis, Khanzada said there were some positive reports relating to the country’s economy. There was an appreciation on the economy even on international level. The world renowned economic analyst body Moodi’s, which had graded the economy as ‘stable’ had now termed it ‘positive’, which is a good indicator for investors. He opined that the Pakistan government should also make structural changes to put the economy on the road to progress on permanent basis to increase job opportunities for the people.
