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| Registration of IDPs should be made compulsory: MQM |
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Saturday, May 23, 2009
By our correspondent
Karachi
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Coordination Committee has demanded that the registration of internally displaced persons (IDPs) migrating from Swat and Malakand into Sindh, Punjab, and Balochistan should be made compulsory.
Addressing a press conference on Friday at the Khursheed Memorial Hall, MQM Coordination Committee Deputy Convener Dr Farooq Sattar said that President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the security agencies concerned should ensure the registration of these IDPs, while those migrating from the northern areas should be limited to makeshift camps and should not be allowed to enter the city.
Revealing details of the discussions held by MQM London Rabita Committee and MQM Pakistan Rabita Committee, he said that the committees had observed that the country was passing through a very critical situation. He said that increasing Talibanisation in Karachi should be stopped immediately, while elements such as the land mafia and land grabbers who were supporting the Taliban should be checked as soon as possible before they commit any suicide attacks in the city, he stressed.
Sattar said that if the current situation accentuated, then the MQM would propose that these IDPs are confined to the province of their origin, the NWFP. He said that Karachi should not be allowed to be turned into another Swat, and this “cancer of Talibanisation” should be weeded out from all parts of the country.
He said the Muttahida Qaumi Movement fully supported the protest announced by the nationalist parties against those migrating under the pretext of IDPs as they could cause any kind of damage to Karachi. The MQM, he said, was working for the solidarity and integrity of the country and would foil all the conspiracies being hatched by the Taliban.
Sattar stressed that if the provinces had been with provided provincial autonomy, such a situation would never have arisen.
When his attention was drawn to the statement issued by Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulkfiqar Mirza that there was no concrete evidence of Talibanisation in Karachi, Sattar said it would be better to put this question to Dr Mirza.
Expressing his deep concern over the migration of IDPs into Karachi in millions, he said that the government had no record of those migrating into the city. Sattar said that for over a year now, MQM chief Altaf Hussain had been saying that the activities of the Taliban were increasing, especially in Karachi. He said that religious parties continued to deny his statements, but Hussain’s fears were proving to be correct today.
He said a religious party which had opposed the creation of Pakistan before 1947 and had said “Pakistan Na Pakistan” and labelled the Quaid-e-Azam as Kafir-e-Azam, was today directly or indirectly trying to destabilise Pakistan He said today the descendents of the party which never came under the flag of the Muslim League and joined the Unionist Party made by the British had adopted a different face and claimed to be patriots. He claimed that these religious parties were opposing the operation being launched by Army. —FM
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ISSN 1563-9479 
