Saturday, Apr 27, 2024 | Last Update : 01:49 AM IST
Pakistan defence minister snubs MQM
Pakistan defence minister Khawaja Mohammed Asif has said that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) was complaining only because writ of law was being established in Karachi.
Pakistan defence minister Khawaja Mohammed Asif has said that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) was complaining only because writ of law was being established in Karachi.
He said that the MQM had started calling for martial law in Pakistan since a few days ago.
In a statement, the defence minister said that the Army and the paramilitary Rangers were fighting a war for the survival of Pakistan. He said that peace in Pakistan was improbable without peace in Karachi.
The defence minister’s statement comes after the MQM and its chief Altaf Hussain made repeated statements against the Army and the Rangers.
Earlier, interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had also said that the profane language being used by the MQM for the Army and the Rangers was intolerable.
The interior minister said that the federal and provincial governments were determined to make Karachi a peaceful city.
Mr Khan said that the action of Rangers was according to the law and the principles agreed for the Karachi operation.
The interior minister said that the Karachi operation is being carried “in our national interest and whole nation support it.”
MQM chief Altaf Hussain told a television channel that the MQM was a party of middle-class workers and “intentionally maligned”.
In his reaction to the Rangers’ report on MQM activist Umair Siddiqui, who allegedly led a 23-member group that purpotedly had killed 120 people in Karachi, Mr Hussain said a media trial has been launched against the MQM on gunoint in the same manner as it was conducted in 1992.
He also claimed that contrary to the Rangers’ assertion that Siddiqui was arrested on March 11 from Nine Zero — the MQM’s Karachi HQ — the accused was arrested on February 15 and had been subjected to “inhumane torture” since then.
Mr Hussain said that the Rangers personnel took statements by torturing the suspects.
“The Rangers officials will have to pay for their deeds,” he said, adding that some of the Army generals were involved in supporting feudal culture and status quo.
