By By our correspondent
The coordination committee of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Rabita Committee will support Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari for the presidential slot, MQM Founder and Chief Altaf Hussain said Sunday.
Addressing a general workers’ meeting at the office of the Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation (KKF), Altaf asked workers whether they approved the decision of the Rabita Committee. The huge gathering endorsed the decision.
He also appealed to the Haq Parast people of Punjab to support Zardari and urged Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif to support Zardari for his presidential election and avoid confrontation.
Hussain said that the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam – Fazlur Rehman (JUI-F) and the Awami National Party (ANP) had also announced to support Zardari, who was at the moment the most suitable candidate as his wife had given her life for the restoration of democracy. Benazir Bhutto’s father and brother also sacrificed their lives for democracy, Hussain said.
He asked Sharif to avoid any kind of crisis as the need of the hour at the moment was to remain united. Hussain said that after he had extended support to Zardari it was being given an ethnic colour and the PML-N had started opposing the idea.
Referring to sectarian clashes in D.I. Khan and Parachinar, Hussain said that the MQM could play the role of mediator and bring closer various religious scholars for creating harmony among different sects. He paid tribute to the law-enforcement agencies who are trying to control the highly tense situation in D.I. Khan and Parachinar.
He lauded the role of the Adviser to the Prime Minister for Interior Rehman Malik for arranging food and shelter for those people who had migrated.
Hussain referred to his past speeches and said they were given a wrong impression and said the MQM was neither against the Pakhtoons nor the ANP. The MQM is against Talibanisation, Hussain said. He stressed that the party would never allow Talibanisation in Sindh, including Karachi as Sindh was the land of Sufis and citizens of this province were peace-loving.
He said the people of Karachi were against extremism and any kind of terrorism. He asked the Pakhtoons and the ANP to not get provoked as the MQM was not against them.He also appealed to the well-to-do people to donate generously zakat, fitra and other donations in Ramazan to Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation (KKF) as this organisation was helping the needy. Hussain’s address from London was simultaneously telecast in 19 cities of Pakistan. A KKF board of trustees was also formed and Dr Farooq Sattar was named its Secretary General.