MQM tirade against army intolerable: Nisar

ISLAMABAD: Commenting on the statements of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain regarding the Pakistan Army and Rangers, Minister for Interior and Narcotics Control Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said here on Saturday that the tirade against the two state institutions was touching intolerable levels.
This kind of language was not used against one’s own army in any country and society in the world, he said, and advised the leadership of the MQM to avoid using inappropriate language against national security institutions to distract attention from the real issue.
Chaudhry Nisar has said that the Karachi operation has the complete backing of the federal and provincial governments. “No stone will be left unturned and no action will be left, staying within the ambit of the law, to make Karachi a peaceful city.”
In a statement, the interior minister said that the Rangers’ action (at Nine-Zero) was according to the law and within the parameters and principles agreed for the operation in the city.
Chaudhry Nisar said the MQM had in the past acknowledged the army and Rangers’ sacrifices in combating terrorism in the country, adding that the party’s condemnation of the army and Rangers following the Nine-Zero raid was unacceptable.
The interior minister said that the MQM had been demanding an army-backed operation in Karachi. “Altaf Hussain and other MQM leaders have time and again insisted that the army be used to clean the city of target killers and terrorists,” he said. “If the MQM has any complaint about the operation, it should raise them in a court of law instead of condemning its own country’s army,” Chaudhry Nisar Ali added.
Using such obnoxious language about our own army, which is rendering matchless sacrifices, is not acceptable. He said that it is the same army with which the MQM had been a partner in power for nine long years and had taken many political benefits. “It’s strange logic that one day you give a statement in favour of the army, praising it like anything and on the following day if something happens against your desire, the army is maligned with condemnable language and it is not acceptable,” Chaudhry Nisar said, adding that the Rangers arrested convicted criminals during its raid on Nine-Zero whose presence there itself is a big question mark. Instead of offering any plausible explanation, the MQM has initiated a baseless and malicious campaign against the Pakistan Army while national interest demands that the whole nation should stand by the Army wholeheartedly.
The interior minister said that at a time when the army is rendering sacrifices on a daily basis for the elimination of terrorists and militants from the face of the country and making considerable achievements, the MQM’s criticism of the army is a condemnable question mark. “If the MQM thinks that its contention is correct, it must approach the judiciary which is free. It must state its plea by staying within the limits of the law and shouldn’t castigate others to hide its crimes,” Chaudhry Nisar Ali advised the MQM leadership.