LAHORE: JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Sunday said Pakistan was facing crisis after crisis with the latest one being that of the MQM resignations. Expressing his views in Geo News programme ‘Aapas ki Baat’, Fazl said rescuing the country from a crisis-like situation was common responsibility and he would try to convince the MQM to withdraw the decision. The things would move forward, if the MQM agreed to the proposal, he added. Fazl said he would come to know about the MQM’s demands after talks started as those had not been presented so far. MQM chief Altaf Hussain, he said, accepted his stance that the dialogue should be unconditional. He said that the prime minister and the leaders of parliamentary parties would be kept informed about the talks, with the next step to be taken only after consultation with them. According to Fazl, legal experts say the resignations can be withdrawn by considering the Islamabad High Court (IHC)’s decision as interpretation and measures are being taken after the advice given to the National Assembly speaker. They were not properly guided on the issues of PTI members’ resignations and their stance was based on principles, Fazl said. They had also cited the IHC verdict at that time while the speaker’s ruling was binding unless it was cancelled by the House or nullified by any court, he noted. Fazl said he was going for talks with the MQM as a representative of the Parliament, adding that he had been tasked with the job in consultation with the Leader of the House and Leader of the Opposition. According to Fazl, everyone would have to think whether the objective of peace could be obtained or not through the by-elections on the national and provincial assemblies’ seats in Karachi and Hyderabad. Also, what could be achieved for the country and political/ constitutional system should also be a consideration. Petty issues have to be ignored for reaching a unanimous opinion. He said the parliamentary leaders would be consulted after the MQM presented the demands so see which of them could be accepted. The MQM had objections on a part of the Karachi operation and being able to help the Parliament and national institutions would be a great success, he remarked. Najam Sethi, in his analysis, said the MQM wanted formation of monitoring committee for face saving, which was possible only through the Parliament. The Apex Committee was working in the right manner in Sindh, he added. A monitoring committee of National Assembly could be formed on the Karachi operation, which might result in pressure on the MQM to rectify the attitude, he said. But the army would not accept a monitoring committee interfering in the operation, with its status not more than a post office, he added. Sethi said Shuja Khanzada was a brave person who, unlike others, openly stated that they eliminated Malik Ishaq and it was a part of National Action Plan. As a result, the security for him should have been beefed up as there was a threat that he would become a target after that statement, he said. He added that the state should work on eliminating extremism through formulating a comprehensive policy and starting from the textbooks. Sethi said the Haripur by-poll was very important as no important by-elections were coming in the future. He said the PML-N was able to deal effectively with the problems, which wasn’t the case with the PTI as it had been facing infighting.
