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Thursday March 28, 2024

MQM warns govt of sit-in if arrests don’t stop

Farooq Sattar questions motive for stopping KKF from collecting donations when Edhi and other welfare organisations are allowed to do so

By Shamim Bano
July 05, 2015
Karachi
Showing a “red card” to the provincial and federal governments, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement warned them on Saturday that it would stage a peaceful sit-in outside the Chief Minister’s House or some other location on a date to be announced later if the State’s discriminatory attitude towards the party continued.
Addressing a press conference at the Khursheed Begum Memorial Hall, MQM leader Farooq Sattar said the party was left with no other option but to approach the masses and start a peaceful campaign against the biased attitude of the authorities.
“It seems as if the Pakistan Protection Act, which was aimed at launching action against anti-State element, is being used against us and this is creating an impression among the masses that the MQM is being pushed out of mainstream national politics,” he remarked.
“However, such conspiracies against the MQM will have far-reaching repercussions,” h added.
He said under the garb of the Karachi operation, unjustified, illogical and unconstitutional raids were being conducted at the MQM’s office and its activists and supporters were arrested by the law-enforcement agencies.

Arrest of KKF workers
Sattar said MQM was being targeted for the past several years, and now Rangers and other law enforcement agencies were picking up workers and volunteers of the Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation (KKF), a welfare organisation run by the party, and they were being remanded in the paramilitary force’s custody for 90 days.
“These KKF workers were taken away from their homes, not while they were collecting zakat or fitra,” he maintained.
The MQM leader said other welfare organisations including the Edhi Foundation and the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital were openly collecting donations, but an undeclared ban had been imposed on the KKF.
“This is a shocking and discriminatory move and the high-ups and the authorities concerned should explain as to why the KKF has been banned from collecting donations while there are no such restrictions on other welfare organisations.”
Sattar said the families of the KKF workers and volunteers were extremely distressed over the arrest of their loved ones for no fault of theirs.
“It’s because of these circumstances that the MQM is forced to take the last step and has shown a red card to both the provincial and federal governments giving them a last chance to stop these arbitrarily steps,” he warned. “Otherwise, the party will be unable to stop its aggrieved and enraged activists and supporters from resorting to agitation. The MQM and it its chief Altaf Hussain will not be responsible for that.”
Sattar also said the government should make a constitutional amendment against the MQM so that the party could ascertain its status. The MQM leader as flanked by MNAs Kunwar Naveed Jameel and Waseem Akhter and the party’s media in-charge Amin-ul-Haq.

Rabita Committee meeting
Separately, the MQM Rabita Committee has condemned what it described as biased and insulting attitude displayed by Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah.
The committee simultaneously held a meeting at its London and Karachi offices to discuss the latest developments.
The party also called a meeting on sector and unit levels to discuss the current situation.
The MQM said Altaf Hussain spoke with Qaim Ali Shah on the phone to discuss the Rangers’ high-handedness against party activists and supporters but the latter was finding it hard to understand him because of his old age. He then to contact Zardari several times on his two telephone numbers, but the latter did not attend his calls.
In response, the chief minister said he had left a meeting to attend the MQM chief's call.
“I did talk to Altaf Hussain but he himself hung up the phone after becoming emotional during the conversation,” he added.

Appeal to human rights bodies
A day earlier, the MQM had approached human rights organisations with an appeal to raise their voice against what they called “dubious arrests” of its workers and staffers of its welfare organisation, Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation (KKF).
The Coordination Committee of the party said its workers collected money through Fitra and Zakat and the people of Karachi were well aware of that fact. Stopping those collecting funds for the needy people was a great injustice, it said, adding that the KKF was working round the clock for the welfare of the people.