MQM-Pakistan devises three-pronged strategy against ‘anti-party actions’

Sattar appeals for immediate release of workers

and supporters detained without charge

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has formulated a three-pronged strategy to counter actions being taken against the party’s workers and supporters, including “continuous arrests, raids and extrajudicial killings”.

As part of the first prong, the MQM-P has appealed to the army chief, the prime minister, the chief minister and the concerned quarters to immediately release the party’s workers and supporters being detained without any charge.

Addressing a hurriedly called news conference at the temporary party headquarters on Tuesday, MQM-P chief Dr Farooq Sattar said that in the past six months three party workers had fallen victim to “extrajudicial killings”.

He claimed that Ameeruddin, who headed the party’s Liaquatabad sector, was killed in jail on Tuesday. He demanded immediately putting a stop to such actions. He said that in the past six months the MQM-P had been unable to get an audience with the premier to express the party’s grievances. “It seems that he is avoiding us.”

He lamented that there was no home minister for Sindh, and requested that the PM appoint a home minister for the province as soon as possible so the party could seek justice from him.

“Even though we are a parliamentary political party, we are been ignored. If our pleas continue to fall on deaf ears, we shall move the court as part of the second prong and, hopefully, get justice there.”

If the MQM-P’s issues remained unresolved, he warned, the party would stage protests in front of the CM House as part of the third prong. “We shall take all the cases to court if they are not probed.”

Sattar claimed that Waheed Sheikh, an organiser for the party in Shah Faisal Colony, was brutally killed in jail in August last year and Mohammed Naeem Akhter of Lyari was killed in detention in November. “Today Ameeruddin met the same fate.”

He wondered why the party’s workers and supporters were being picked up but never being produced in court, terming the alleged practice a violation of human rights and the Constitution of Pakistan. “Who should we appeal to? Whose door should we knock on to get relief? We strongly condemn the inhumane act of killing innocent people. We want transparent investigations into these incidents and bringing to book those behind them.”

Accompanied by Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly Khawaja Izharul Hasan, Faisal Subzwari and Aminul Haq, the MQM-P chief said his party loved peace and believed in stability and prosperity of the country.

“We should not be pushed to the wall. Let us do our bit for the sake of the country. We are being punished for no reason for the past six months. What do the authorities want from us?”