Nisar faces MQM in NA today after raid on 90

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) lawmakers will be face to face in the National Assembly for the first time on Monday after March 11 Rangers’ raid on Nine-Zero during which some confirmed criminals and some alleged dreaded offenders were arrested and weapons recovered.
The interior minister plans to take the Lower House into confidence about the high profile action, featuring its different aspects and will also reinforce the official policy regarding targeted operation against extortionists, target killers, kidnappers for ransom and mafias in Karachi, which was launched with consensus of all the political parties in September 2013.
On the other hand, the MQM is all set to lodge its protest against the raid in particular and the campaign in general. It will find this first opportunity to vent out its anger inside the National Assembly. It will expectedly belabour and build on its consistent line that it was not opposed to action against criminals, but it should not be discriminated against.
The presence and speech of Chaudhry Nisar may spark a noisy protest by the MQM as the interior minister is the leading government figure, who has not only supported Wednesday’s raid on Nine-Zero but justified it. He unequivocally defended the action.
He told The News that the targeted operation would continue, and no interference, political or other, would be tolerated. He also scoffed at MQM chief Altaf Hussain for haranguing against the army and asked him to desist from it.
In the past, the MQM used to take on the interior minister in harsh words, also subjecting him to personal attacks when he had severely taken exception to some of its statements and actions. But this time, it has not reacted to his defence and justification of the raid. This is apparently because of the pressure that the MQM is feeling due to the arrest of convicted killer of Geo News reporter Wali Babar and other dubious characters, accused of having committed heinous crimes, from Nine-Zero.
The MQM is conscious that this time authorities, especially the Rangers, backed by all the premier military and civilian intelligence agencies mean business to eliminate those who are responsible for fuelling, fostering and creating bloody mayhem in Karachi for decades.
It has become clear to the party that law enforcement agencies will not relent without doing the assigned job regardless of the time required for it.
Immediately after the March 11 raid, the interior minister spoke on it with clarity and continues to talk about it, validating the action. He was supposed to do so because the paramilitary force, the Sindh Rangers, falls in the control of his Interior Ministry and its chief frequently briefs him on different facets of the ongoing operation.
“The tirade against the Pakistan Army and Rangers is touching intolerable limits; this kind of language is not used against the army in any country or society in the world; the MQM leadership should avoid employing inappropriate language against national security institutions to distract attention from the real issue; the Karachi operation has the complete backing of the federal and Sindh governments,” he said while commenting on MQM chief Altaf Hussain’s latest remarks.
However, two days after the raid, Defence Minister Khawaja M Asif has also dwelt on it and said the Army and Rangers are fighting war of our existence; without peace in Karachi peace in rest of Pakistan will remain elusive; the mega city is the economic life line of Pakistan; we will protect it at all costs; it was only few days back, the MQM was inviting martial law, and now that writ of the law is being restored in Karachi, it is complaining.
When the MQM will protest in the National Assembly on Monday before or after the interior minister’s remarks, it is unlikely to find any takers of its viewpoint and policy. There is not a single political party that has stood with it on the issue of raid on Nine-Zero. Not only this, parties like the Jamaat-e-Islami and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have harshly attacked it for its role in Karachi, understandably eying political gains there.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will certainly defend the raid and will not show any kind of leniency or solidarity with the MQM in the National Assembly on this issue. As a whole, it will fully back the action with the resolve to persist with it till its logical conclusion.
Although the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had developed good relations with the MQM shortly before the raid, their ties are nose-diving after the action as Altaf Hussain’s team has not found Asif Ali Zardari’s colleagues coming to its rescue. Even in his latest remarks, the MQM chief ridiculed Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah for being an absolutely ‘spineless’ man.
The MQM says that it has been singled out for action in Karachi and is being politically isolated. Keeping Wednesday’s powerful action aside, the MQM has adopted such policies that continue to alienate it and other political parties prefer to stay away from it.