MQM flays ‘second attempt to snatch its mandate’

Karachi
The candidate of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) for its home seat NA-246 Azizabad, Kunwar Naveed Jamil, said attempts were being made by the establishment to snatch the party’s mandate using the crutches of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
Referring to the remarks of PTI chief Imran Khan against the MQM chief on television a couple of days earlier, Jamil said politics had its own language but even then there morals and values of acceptable behaviour.
Continuing to criticise the PTI chairman, Jamil said he and his sidekicks were “bereft of character” and when they did not receive votes from the people of Karachi referred to them as the “living dead”.
Jamil said Karachi has witnessed so much turmoil during the past few years but none of the PTI leaders had come to express solidarity.
“Where was Imran Khan when extrajudicial killings were taking place? He is suddenly here today trying to show his sympathies,” he said, adding that so far 600 innocent MQM workers had been arrested from Federal B Area and Liaquatabad.
He said when the All Parties Conference against terrorism had been going on in London, PTI chief Imran Khan had been at another event held for “saving Indian elephants”.
He said even today, people raised questions over the source of funds for establishing the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital.
He said by-elections were held on four seats in Karachi after the 2013 general election and the whole polling process had been monitored by army personnel. He said Haq Parast candidates had won by landslides while security deposits of PTI candidates had been forfeited. He said now there was no reason for the PTI to create such a hullaballoo over the matter.
Waseem Akhtar, incharge of MQM’s executive central executive council, was also present on the occasion. He said thousands of people who attended rallies of the MQM were also ‘walking dead’.
He said elections were a democratic process and the only way to pave the way for democracy. This was why, he said, when the by-election for NA-246 had been announced MQM chief Altaf Hussain had ‘welcomed PTI’s participation in the process with open arms’.
He said instead of returning the gesture, the PTI chief had made crossed the line of acceptable behaviour for “character assassination” of MQM chief Altaf Hussain. He said such behaviour was not suited for any kind of politics and these remarks can only be passed by someone of a ‘plebeian’ background.
He said the people of Karachi were educated and knew who stood by them in adverse times. He said the people know and understand which party and leader had stood by them and would continue to stand by them in difficult times.
Akhtar alleged the PTI was the political wing of Taliban and was the first one to issue a condemnation when militants were killed in drone strikes in North Waziristan. He said the behaviour of grieving parents toward Imran Khan after the attack on Army Public School had been aired on national television and was visible for everyone.