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Friday July 11, 2025

MQM-P warns of quitting ruling coalition if killers of missing workers not caught

By Our Correspondent
September 16, 2022

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui has warned of parting ways with the ruling coalition in the centre over the issue of his party’s missing workers, saying that his party joined the previous and current ruling alliances to recover around 200 missing workers and to resolve public problems.

“One of the reasons for staying with the governments was our missing and hostage workers. For the past many years, we have been trying to put an end to the gruesome killings of MQM-P workers. We were of the view we would be able to get our rights only if we survived,” he said while talking to media after the funeral prayers of MQM-P worker Abid Abbasi, who, together with two other missing activists, was found murdered on Wednesday.

Siddiqui asked the prime minister and the state institutions what crime these political workers had committed for which they were executed brutally. In civilised societies, no one goes missing.

“The PM must give us a reason why the MQM-P should support his government. We have been supporting the PM and even the previous government so that our problems are solved and we have been asking for the recovery of the missing colleagues. But no one is ready to listen to us.”

The MQM-P leader asked; “You [the PM] promised me in a meeting that you would give us an answer and would take every possible step to do justice. Now it’s upon the PM to do justice to our nation and find out who killed these workers. No common man has been able to reach out to the missing workers. The question is: who killed these workers and why?

“We were hoping for their safe return and we also assured their families that their missing would come home. Now we have no answer. The PM should come and satisfy the families of missing persons and give answers to their questions.”

After the funeral prayers of three missing MQM-P workers who were found murdered in various districts of Sindh, deputy convener Wasim Akhtar of party said on Thursday the prime minister had promised an impartial inquiry to catch the killers of the workers.

“The current prime minister has also promised that he will cooperate with the provincial government by setting up an impartial committee to find out the killers,” he said, added that the people of Karachi were once again looking at the promises of the government. Akhtar pleaded with the chief justice of Pakistan and the army chief “to show mercy to the people of Karachi and provide them speedy justice and end the feeling of deprivation”.

Missing MQM-P woker Irfan Basarat’s body was found in Sanghar, Abid Abbasi’s body was found in Nawabshah, while Wasim Raju’s dead body was discovered in Mirpurkhas. The funeral prayers for slain worker Abid Abbasi were offered at Masjid-e-Gulzar Anbia, Nishtar Road, Lyari, and he was buried in C-1 Area Liaquatabad, while the funereal prayers for Wasim Raju were held at Al-Falah Masjid, and he was buried at the Jamia Millia Graveyard in Shah Faisal Colony.

Talking to media persons, Akhtar said the people of Pakistan witnessed what was being done to Karachi. “We are constantly trying to improve the situation. We want peace and tranquility in the city and have informed the present governments about the problems of our people and also made efforts to recover our missing workers. However, we were given dead bodies of our missing workers.”

Akhtar said his party supported Imran Khan and his government for three and a half years, but the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government did not fulfil any of the promises it had made. He said the previous government did not know about the whereabouts of the missing MQM-P workers. “If the government had no idea, then how the dead bodies of those were found in various districts of Sindh.”

He said that today the people of Karachi were asking where they should go to demand justice. “More than 200 of our workers are still missing. Their cases are still pending in courts.” Akhtar said that when someone needs to come into power, they get votes from the people of Karachi, but after making governments no one is ready to resolve the problems of this city. He said that if someone had committed a crime, he should be brought to justice.