MQM-Pakistan decries IGP’s ‘cop murderers in power’ remarks

MPA Faisal Subzwari says his party had nothing to do with killings of police officers and those who were actually responsible should be arrested

In response to Sindh IGP AD Khowaja’s remarks on Wednesday that the cops who had participated in the Karachi operation in the mid-90s were murdered while the killers were in the “corridors of power”, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan snapped back on Friday that the party had nothing to do with those killings and demanded the arrest of the people responsible for them.

MQM-P coordination committee member MPA Faisal Subzwari, accompanied by information in-charge Aminul Haque, while addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in PIB Colony, said the police chief should in keep in mind that former IGP Zulfiqar Cheema had admitted on TV that the 1995 operation in Karachi by Naseerullah Babar was aimed at targeting the Urdu-speaking community.

“That was the basic reason why the then president Farooq Ahmed Leghari had toppled the Benazir Bhutto government on December 5, 1996,” he added.

“The extrajudicial killings in Karachi had forced Leghari to the show the door to the PPP government and later the Supreme Court too had endorsed the charge sheet presented by the then president.”

Subzwari said thousands of MQM activists were murdered in custody in Karachi and a large number of those affiliated with the party were arrested after laying siege to several localities – a fact that was not a secret.

“The IGP should speak responsibly while recalling his memories,” he added.

The MQM-P MPA said Waseem Raja, a party supporter in Orangi Town, was recently arrested and his body was later found with torture marks on it.

“The MQM-P staged a protest but no police officer was suspended and the family of victim was forced to go for a settlement.”

Subzwari further said the SHO in Lyari was murdered and the gangsters there were toying with police.

“The gangsters in Lyari are murdering their rivals and then playing football with their severed heads.”

The MQM-P leader demanded that police should be de-politicised. “The police officers involved in criminal activities should be sacked but everybody knows as to on whose orders such corrupt DSPs and other officers were appointed,” he added.

Subzwari said PPP leader Nisar Morai was found in possession of illegal weapons but police had later claimed they were found in a garbage dump. He maintained that the previous chief minister was patronising notorious gangsters.   

Without taking names, Subzwari said a political leader visited Karachi after every two years and issued statements instigating hatred against Karachi and the Urdu-speaking community, reflecting his intent to take over the city.

Again without mentioning any names, he maintained that certain people in Peshawar kept saying that the MQM-P and the MQM-London were still one.

“The MQM-P neither harbours hostilities against any party, nor promotes a policy of hatred and division,” he said. “We believe in positive politics and we have distanced ourselves with MQM-L.”

Subzwari said the MQM-P would never disappoint the Urdu-speaking community. He also demanded that the chief minister should immediately appoint a neutral home minister and not leave innocent citizens at the mercy of police.