Thursday, April 30, 2009

Ethnic Hatred - And Anti-Americanism



STOP PRESS!

This was written in December 2007.

It is not a secret that Great Britain is an important ally of the US in its War on Terror. It is also not a secret that Mr. Altaf Hussain [Founder Leader of Muttahida Qaumi Movement]is currently living in London since early 1992 with half of its Central Leadership with ample freedom to run MQM from a country that is an staunch ally of the USA. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Government had granted him British nationality a few years back as was reported by many newspapers in Pakistan and abroad.

"QUOTE"

On Friday Dec 7, 2007 Altaf Hussain on Friday lashed out at the US and other western countries for supporting the feudal system in Pakistan because it suited their interests. “America is on top of the list of the countries which are pulling the strings of the Pakistani establishment. The US dislikes the MQM because it has always stood against the status quo,” Mr Hussain said in a telephonic address from London to a meeting held as part of his party’s election campaign.He said the US could see everything through its satellites, but it had never been able to see private jails of feudal lords in Pakistan. He accused the US of supporting elements who had looted the country’s exchequer and were involved in extra-judicial killings. But, he said, it never used a good word for the MQM in its reports, despite the fact that over 15,000 of its workers had been killed.

He said some religious and political parties were alleging that President Musharraf was doing everything at the behest of the US, but the fact was that all Pakistani leaders were following the US dictates. Citing the examples of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, he said when the two former prime ministers were living abroad they always requested the US to intervene and get them cleared. He said the US was giving aid to Pakistan and only for the war on terror it had provided $10 billion. “We are compelled to accept the dictates of these powers because we are heavily indebted. If we want to become a sovereign state we will have to eliminate corruption and work hard.” [1]

"UNQUOTE"

Lets see what the history says about Mr. Altaf Hussain and MQM's so-called Anti Americanism.

Since it is known to everybody that MQM was created by General Zia (a US backed Military)Dictator [circa 1978] to counter Jamat-e-Islami, PPP and other Federal Political Parties. In those years Altaf Husaain also visited USA to be precise Chicago and he used to drive cab there [no harm its good to earn money through hard work but one wonder why didn't Altaf blamed USA then despite knowing that USA and General Zia both were backing Ruthless Afghan Fundamentalist in Afghanistan] .

"The earliest political organization of Mohajirs, the All Pakistan Mohajir Student Organization (APMSO) founded in 1978 by Altaf Hussain, evolved into the MQM in 1984. Ethnic and religious divisions in Sindh were exacerbated during the years General Zia-ul Haq was in office (1977 to 1988, of these 1977 to 1985 under martial law) as he used them to suppress and divide democratic opposition to his rule. Ethnic strife between Mohajir and Sindhis who had initially jointly opposed the influx of Punjabis and Pathans into Sindh, rapidly increased in Karachi and Hyderabad from the mid-1980s. The MQM, led by Altaf Hussain, meanwhile consolidated its hold on the Mohajir community. In November 1987, the MQM won local body elections in Karachi, Hyderabad and other urban centres in Sindh." [2]

Mr Altaf Hussain says that USA is backing the Feudal Parties in Pakistan one wonders why the hell MQM and Altaf Hussain was supporting General Musharraf since 12 Oct 1999 and specifically after 2002 Election despite knowing wvery well that General Musharraf Regime is consist upon the very Feudal/Tribal Chiefs which Altaf Hussain and MQM didn't like. MQM and Altaf Hussain must share their responsibility in every crime Musharraf Regime committed.

Running Karachi - from London By Isambard Wilkinson in Karachi and Damien McElroy
Last Updated: 1:36AM BST 15 May 2007

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1551540/Running-Karachi---from-London.html

The man in charge of Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, was at his usual command-and-control post at the weekend: a sofa in north London.

As his fiefdom descended into brutal violence, with the deaths of at least 40 people reported amid the worst political bloodshed Pakistan has witnessed in years, Altaf Hussain directed his followers by telephone from a safe place more than 5,000 miles away.

His headquarters, or "international secretariat", is not in the Pakistani port city but housed in a red-brick office block opposite a supermarket on Edgware High Street.

Followers of Mr Hussain, 53, whose Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) is allied to President Pervez Musharraf's government, were accused yesterday of playing a bloody part in the clashes with opposition supporters.

But in an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Hussain insisted that they held a "completely peaceful gathering" and that it was opposition supporters who provoked the violence, in which at least nine MQM activists were killed. When reports of the killings reached Edgware on Saturday morning, Mr Hussain was preparing to address the party by telephone. Three hours later, he defied what he called "agitators" by leaning over the loudspeaker of his phone to speak to his supporters.

Opposition activists loyal to Benazir Bhutto were staging their own anti-government rally when the violence began.

But Mr Hussain said: "It was a completely peaceful gathering by MQM supporters that was targeted by a collaboration of three other parties."

He said he had called for peace. But as tens of thousands of his followers sat cross-legged in reverential silence as they listened to their leader's telephonic address relayed by loudspeakers, in another street armed MQM activists fired directly into the crowds of opposition protesters.

Mr Hussain, who founded the MQM in 1984 specifically to represent the Mohajirs - Muslim refugees from India - has lived in Britian since arriving in 1992 for a kidney operation. He has since become a British citizen, while his party governs five cities and the populous Sind province.

He claimed yesterday that his party is the only force to stand up for secular values in Pakistan. "MQM is the only party against all sorts of religious fanaticism in Pakistan," he said. "It is these groups and their influence, which is all around, that is stopping me coming home. A sizeable majority of the army even have been brainwashed to supporting what the Taliban wants to impose."

Mr Hussain, who spent part of yesterday speaking on the telephone to Gen Musharraf, warned Pakistan's leader not to make any deals with exiled leaders, such as his rival Miss Bhutto, that would see the military ruler resign from the army.

Pakistan faces a referendum on Gen Musharraf's rule before the end of the year and he has promised to abandon his uniform before the poll.

"The situation in South Asia does not allow Pervez Musharraf to take off his uniform, for without it he will have no power at all. Because of activities next door in Afghanistan as well as our own country, the Taliban is growing very strong," Mr Hussaid said.

"He is doing his level best to fight these groups. Musharraf is a very brave man. Only he can prevent the Talibanisation of Pakistan."

Unlike the former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Miss Bhutto, Mr Hussain is an exile whose party has consolidated its grip. But Karachi remains tense.

The MQM's most senior leader in Pakistan, Farooq Sattar, said: "The opposition wants to show that Karachi does not belong to the MQM. We have accepted the challenge."

Mr Hussain is one of the Indian subcontinent's more unusual leaders. His political addresses by telephone have been known to last up to four hours, while a Western diplomat in Pakistan described the MQM as "something out of Chicago - nobody leaves the party".

While Mr Hussain promotes the party as a secular cause and courts the middle-class vote, his supporters are known to extort a goonda, or thug, tax from Karachi businesses.

Mr Hussain, who once drove a taxi in Chicago for a living, micro-manages the MQM with acute attention to detail.

The movement runs on Greenwich Mean Time with his ministers in Pakistan fielding hour-long telephone calls into the early hours.

Mr Sattar admitted that his party's image had been tarnished by "accusations of fascism and terrorism" but said this was a "misperception".

Some observers argue that in the tough city of Karachi the MQM has given a vulnerable group protection and a voice.

After Mr Hussain left Pakistan, an army operation was launched against his party during which hundreds of its workers were either killed by police or were arrested on charges of terrorism. He has no plans to return to Pakistan.

When asked why Mr Hussain was not deported to Pakistan before he was granted citizenship, a British diplomat said: "He has not committed a crime on British soil."

The hidden risks of the photo op Stewart Bell, National Post Published: Saturday, April 14, 2007

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=155368cd-571d-4225-b1dc-fadc304164e1

In Pakistan, Syed Safdar Ali Baqri was a senior official in a political party called MQM, but since moving to Toronto in 1998, he has become an active supporter of the Conservatives.

During the past two federal elections, Mr. Baqri has been photographed with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, House Speaker Peter Milliken, Conservative campaign cochairman John Reynolds and several other Conservative and Liberal MPs.

In some of the pictures, the 42-year-old is shown handing the politicians a booklet listing the "issues that matter most" to the MQM's Canadian chapter, MQM-Canada, which Mr. Baqri heads.

MQM-Canada endorsed the Conservative party in 2004 and 2006, and held a Support Conservative Car Rally and a "Picnic and BBQ" for the Conservative candidate in Don Mills. It says its volunteers worked on campaigns in seven cities.

"We welcome MQM-Canada's support and hope to receive cooperation from all chapters of MQM-Canada," says a statement attributed to Conservative MP Leon Benoit and posted on the group's Internet site in 2004. (Mr. Benoit said he does not recall making the comment.)

The ties between MQM-Canada and the Conservatives continued post-election. When MQM held its three-day annual convention in Toronto last June, Conservative MP Patrick Brown gave a speech. But what exactly is the MQM?

The Conservatives are apparently beginning to ask that same question. The Privy Council Office did some background research on the group last year and sent a memo to Mr. Harper's chief of staff, Ian Brodie.

The four-page memorandum, released under the Access to Information Act, says the MQM is a Pakistani political party with a history of involvement in ethnic riots, kidnapping, torture and murder.

"Terrorist elements" in the MQM have engaged in harassment of opponents and used crime to raise money for the party, it says, adding that MQM leader Altaf Hussain, who lives in exile in Britain, faces "numerous" criminal charges.

While the MQM was at one time considered a security threat to Canada, it has not been a serious concern since it renounced violence and curbed the extremists in its ranks.

But some still wonder why the Conservatives have aligned themselves with a Pakistani political party that human rights groups and even Canadian officials say has a violent past.

"The MQM has a long and well-deserved reputation for violence, extortion and other criminal acts such as murder," said Tom Quiggin, a former RCMP terrorism expert now working at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

When they were the Opposition, the Conservatives often criticized the Liberals for attending events hosted by organizations close to violent groups such as the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka. But since taking office, the Conservatives are apparently finding it is not always easy to avoid such situations. Which of the many community associations that want the ear of the Prime Minister are worth meeting and which are fronts for extremists? Which photo ops are harmless and which could prove politically damaging down the road?

Conservatives said in interviews they had no idea that even as they were posing for photos with MQM-Canada reps, the Canada Border Services Agency was working to deport dozens of former MQM party workers --and continues to do so -- on the grounds the group was involved in crimes against humanity.

Among those that immigration officials have claimed were complicit in atrocities in Pakistan: Mr. Baqri, the MQM-Canada leader, who was an MQM party boss in Karachi before coming to Canada.

A former minister of industries in the Sindh region of southern Pakistan, Mr. Baqri served as the head of an MQM zone in Karachi. He fled Pakistan and eventually made his way to the United States, where he was part of a committee that tried to build the MQM in North America.

In 1994, an anti-terrorist court in Pakistan convicted him in absentia of kidnapping and torturing an army major, but a higher court overturned the ruling.

When his U.S. asylum claim was rejected, he came to Canada in 1998. The Canadian immigration board's Convention Refugee Determination Division turned down his refugee claim on the grounds that he was aware of abuses committed by MQM members while he was a party leader.

That decision was set aside in 2001 by the Federal Court of Canada, which said immigration officers had failed to query Mr. Baqri about any specific incidents. The court sent the case back for another review, but Mr. Baqri still does not have landed immigrant status.

"He has continued his political activity while in Canada," Mr. Justice Allan Lufty wrote in his 2001 decision on Mr. Baqri's case. "He has organized protests in Ottawa and in Toronto against the government in Pakistan. There are some 9,000 MQM supporters in Canada."

In interviews, Mr. Baqri said it was not unusual that he had met so many of Canada's most powerful politicians despite his unresolved immigration status.

"I'm legally residing in Canada under the prevailing Canadian immigration laws. Also, regarding those politicians, Canada is still a free country and one of the freedom leaders in the world. Therefore, any democratic-minded person can meet with the politicians with [a] common agenda."

A physician by training, Mr. Baqri said he has been unable to work as a doctor in Canada because of his ongoing immigration case. He estimated 100 other former MQM party workers are in a similar limbo.

But he said neither he nor the MQM had ever been involved in violence, and the memo sent to the Prime Minister's Office is inaccurate.

Mr. Baqri said that while individual members of the MQM may have committed crimes on their own, the party did not sanction their activities and those involved were expelled.

Made up partly of MQM party workers who have moved to Canada, MQM Canada describes itself on its Web site as an "active unit" of the MQM. Mr. Baqri said the Canadian group reports to the exiled British leader rather than to MQM headquarters in Pakistan.

MQM-Canada has never been linked to violence. It has chapters in Toronto, Ottawa, Windsor, Calgary and Montreal and describes itself as "perhaps one of the most dynamic Pakistani organization[s] in Canada." A Vancouver chapter is to open soon.

In 2003, MQM-Canada formed a Political Action Committee, and when the writ dropped the following year, the group backed the Conservatives.

"Our workers and supporters in Windsor, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver were very active with their candidates in their respective cities," Mr. Baqri said.

He said their main objectives are to become part of mainstream Canadian politics and to bridge the gap between immigrants and non-immigrants. "In this process we also like to clarify misunderstandings towards the MQM in Canada," he said.

Political action is just one of the MQM's activities in Canada. In an attempt to stop immigration officials from deporting party members, an MQM activist filed a $50-million lawsuit against the Canadian government in 2005. The suit alleged that MQM members were being routinely refused permanent residency in Canada because immigration authorities have concluded the group has been involved in terrorism. A judge dismissed the case last May.

Supporters of the group also took their complaints to the Security Intelligence Review Committee, the watchdog over the Canadian Security Intelligence

Service. A decision is expected any day, although the government is not obliged to follow its recommendations.

The MQM was formed more than two decades ago to represent the interest of Muhajirs, Urdu-speaking Muslims whose families migrated to Pakistan from India at partition in 1947.

Many Muhajirs settled in the southern cities of Karachi and Hyderabad, where they dominated business and the civil service-- until the Pakistani government purged them from key government posts and nationalized their businesses. A quota system was imposed to limit their access to universities and government.

A student leader at the University of Karachi, Altaf Hussain, formed the MQM in 1984 to defend the rights of Muhajirs, and confrontations followed. Tensions between Muhajirs and ethnic Sindhis, Pashtuns and Punjabis led to violence. "MQM was the main player in the ethnic riots of 1986-87," the Canadian government memo says.

Mr. Baqri disputes that, saying: "We were the victims of the riots."

He said the riots were instigated by Pakistan's ISI military intelligence service.

Human rights groups acknowledge that the MQM was the target of a brutal crackdown by Pakistani government forces, but they say MQM activists engaged in violence as well.

"Despite protestations by MQM leader Altaf Hussain that the MQM does not subscribe to violence, there is overwhelming evidence and a consensus among observers in Karachi that some MQM party members have used violent means to further their political aims," Amnesty International wrote in a 1996 report.

The rights group said there was evidence that opponents of the MQM were tortured and killed while in MQM custody. Pakistani forces in Karachi allegedly found torture rooms used by the MQM.

"During its early history," the Canadian government memo says, "MQM drew its power from terrorist elements in the party, who helped it maintain a stronghold over the densely populated poor areas of Karachi and Hyderabad.

"In addition to the harassment of political and ethnic opponents, these insurgent elements were also responsible for generating funds for the party through criminal activities. The resulting lawlessness effectively crippled Karachi until the Pakistan army launched an operation to restore law and order in 1992."

With Karachi in chaos, the military was sent in to intervene and a repressive campaign against the MQM ensued. "Before the Pakistan army launched its 1992 operation," the memo says, "Altaf Hussain had already fled to the UK in order to avoid prosecution; he remains there in self-imposed exile."

The MQM split into two factions, called MQM (H) and Mr. Hussain's group MQM (A). The MQM (H) was allegedly supported by the Pakistani government to weaken the MQM(A). "Since 1992, the MQM factions have directed their violence against each other, as well as against the Pakistani government," the memo says.

There were almost daily killings between the factions in 1994, and the following year there were up to 10 political killings a day in Karachi, according to a research paper published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Mr. Baqri said the human rights groups are wrong. They were relying on locals for their information who were either biased or influenced by the government, he said. "It was an organized campaign to malign MQM in the eyes of the West."

In Pakistan's 2002 elections, MQM emerged as the leading party amongst Urdu-speaking Pakistanis. It now has 18 members in the Pakistan National Assembly and is an ally of President Pervez Musharraf against the Islamist militant groups in the political opposition.

The Canadian memo adds that nine MQM members were sentenced to death for the murder of the Governor of Pakistan's Sindh province. While it says Mr. Hussain was acquitted of charges stemming from the kidnapping of an army major, "There are still numerous other criminal cases pending against him."

The memo concerning MQM-Canada was written by Kevin Lynch, the Clerk of the Privy Council. Why it was sent to the Prime Minister's Office is not explained in those parts of the document made public.

"We have no comment on specific pieces of correspondence," said Myriam Massabki, the Privy Council Office spokeswoman.

Mr. Benoit said he knew nothing about the group, although he did remember attending an MQM-Canada campaign event with several Torontoarea Conservative candidates.

He said a news conference was held following the meeting, but he does not believe he made the statement that is attributed to him on the MQM-Canada Web site. "I do know what they had attributed to me, I absolutely didn't know that that was being attributed to me. I mean, they've done that on their own."

Wajid Khan, the Pakistan-born MP who ran for the Liberals but crossed the floor to the Conservatives, had no recollection of meeting the MQM, although his photo is shown on the Web site with Mr. Baqri.

"I can tell you that Mr. Khan has no affiliation, nor has he ever, with the group you mentioned," said his executive assistant Stefano Pileggi.

"He barely remembers meeting someone from MQM ? He doesn't even remember the man's name, and no he had no knowledge of any criminal allegations."

Melisa Leclerc, Mr. Day's spokeswoman, said the Minister had no idea Mr. Baqri had been accused of atrocities. People often see Mr. Day and ask to have their photo taken with him, she said. "I don't think the Minister knew. He's a strong defender of human rights."

NATIONALPOST.COM

United States Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, Pakistan: Information on Mohajir/Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Altaf (MQM-A), 9 February 2004. PAK04002.OGC. Online. UNHCR Refworld, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/414fe5aa4.html [accessed 30 April 2009]

Pakistan: Information on Mohajir/Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Altaf (MQM-A) Query: Provide information on the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Altaf (MQM-A) in Pakistan.

http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/publisher,USCIS,,,414fe5aa4,0.html

Response:

SUMMARY

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Altaf (MQM-A) has been widely accused of human rights abuses since its founding two decades ago. It claims to represent Mohajirs— Urdu-speaking Muslims who fled to Pakistan from India after the 1947 partition of the subcontinent, and their descendants.

In the mid-1990s, the MQM-A was heavily involved in the widespread political violence that wracked Pakistan's southern Sindh province, particularly Karachi, the port city that is the country's commercial capital. MQM-A militants fought government forces, breakaway MQM factions, and militants from other ethnic-based movements. In the mid-1990s, the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International, and others accused the MQM-A and a rival faction of summary killings, torture, and other abuses (see, e.g., AI 1 Feb 1996; U.S. DOS Feb 1996). The MQM-A routinely denied involvement in violence.

BACKGROUND

The current MQM-A is the successor to a group called the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM) that was founded by Altaf Hussein in 1984 as a student movement to defend the rights of Mohajirs, who by some estimates make up 60 percent of Karachi's population of twelve million. At the time, Mohajirs were advancing in business, the professions, and the bureaucracy, but many resented the quotas that helped ethnic Sindhis win university slots and civil service jobs. Known in English as the National Movement for Refugees, the MQM soon turned to extortion and other types of racketeering to raise cash. Using both violence and efficient organizing, the MQM became the dominant political party in Karachi and Hyderabad, another major city in Sindh. Just three years after its founding, the MQM came to power in these and other Sindh cities in local elections in 1987 (AI 1 Feb 1996; U.S. DOS Feb 1997, Feb 1999; HRW Dec 1997).

The following year, the MQM joined a coalition government at the national level headed by Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which took power in elections following the death of military leader General Zia ul-Haq. This marked the first of several times in the 1980s and 1990s that the MQM joined coalition governments in Islamabad or in Sindh province. Meanwhile, violence between the MQM and Sindhi groups routinely broke out in Karachi and other Sindh cities (AI 1 Feb 1996; Jane's 14 Feb 2003).

In 1992, a breakway MQM faction, led by Afaq Ahmed and Aamir Khan, launched the MQM Haqiqi (MQM-H), literally the "real" MQM. Many Pakistani observers alleged that the MQM-H was supported by the government of Pakistan to weaken the main MQM led by Altaf Hussein, which became known as the MQM-A (Jane's 14 Feb 2003). Several smaller MQM factions also emerged, although most of the subsequent intra-group violence involved the MQM-A and the MQM-H (AI 1 Feb 1996; U.S. DOS Feb 1999; Jane's 14 Feb 2003).

Political violence in Sindh intensified in 1993 and 1994 (Jane's 14 Feb 2003). In 1994, fighting among MQM factions and between the MQM and Sindhi nationalist groups brought almost daily killings in Karachi (U.S. DOS Feb 1995). By July 1995, the rate of political killings in the port city reached an average of ten per day, and by the end of that year more than 1,800 had been killed (U.S. DOS Feb 1996).

The violence in Karachi and other cities began abating in 1996 as soldiers and police intensified their crackdowns on the MQM-A and other groups (Jane's 14 Feb 2003). Pakistani forces resorted to staged "encounter killings" in which they would shoot MQM activists and then allege that the killings took place during encounters with militants (U.S. DOS Feb 1996). Following a crackdown in 1997, the MQM-A adopted its present name, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, or United National Movement, which also has the initials MQM (HRW Dec 1997).

MQM-A leader Hussein fled in 1992 to Britain, where he received asylum in 1999 (Jane's 14 Feb 2003). The MQM-A is not on the U.S. State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations (U.S. DOS 23 May 2003).

While the multifaceted nature of the violence in Sindh province in the 1980s and 1990s at times made it difficult to pinpoint specific abuses by the MQM-A, the group routinely was implicated in rights abuses. In 1992 after the Sindh government called in the army to crack down on armed groups in the province, facilities were discovered that allegedly were used by the MQM-A to torture and at times kill dissident members and activists from rival groups. In 1996, Amnesty International said that the PPP and other parties were reporting that some of their activists had been tortured and killed by the MQM-A (AI 1 Feb 1996).

The MQM-A and other factions also have been accused of trying to intimidate journalists. In one of the most flagrant cases, in 1990 MQM leader Hussein publicly threatened the editor of the monthly NEWSLINE magazine after he published an article on the MQM's alleged use of torture against dissident members (U.S. DOS Feb 1991). The following year, a prominent journalist, Zafar Abbas, was severely beaten in Karachi in an attack that was widely blamed on MQM leaders angered over articles by Abbas describing the party's factionalization. The same year, MQM activists assaulted scores of vendors selling DAWN, Pakistan's largest English-language newspaper, and other periodicals owned by Herald Publications (U.S. DOS Feb 1992).

The MQM-A has also frequently called strikes in Karachi and other cities in Sindh province and used killings and other violence to keep shops closed and people off the streets. During strikes, MQM-A activists have ransacked businesses that remained open and attacked motorists and pedestrians who ventured outside (U.S. DOS Feb 1996; Jane's 14 Feb 2003).

The MQM-A allegedly raises funds through extortion, narcotics smuggling, and other criminal activities. In addition, Mohajirs in Pakistan and overseas provide funds to the MQM-A through charitable foundations (Jane's 14 Feb 2003).

Since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States, the MQM-A has been increasingly critical of Islamic militant groups in Pakistan. The MQM-A, which generally has not targeted Western interests, says that it supports the global campaign against terrorism (Jane's 14 Feb 2003).

This response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the RIC within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

References and Notes:

MQM lashes out at US policies By Our Staff Reporter [1]

December 08, 2007 Saturday Ziqa'ad 27, 1428

http://www.dawn.com/2007/12/08/top4.htm

KARACHI, Dec 7: In what appeared to be an attempt to dispel a perception that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement is a pro-American party, its chief Altaf Hussain on Friday lashed out at the US and other western countries for supporting the feudal system in Pakistan because it suited their interests.

“America is on top of the list of the countries which are pulling the strings of the Pakistani establishment. The US dislikes the MQM because it has always stood against the status quo,” Mr Hussain said in a telephonic address from London to a meeting held as part of his party’s election campaign.

Mr Hussain advised political and religious parties to participate in the general election because “most of their demands have been met by President Pervez Musharraf”.

He said the US could see everything through its satellites, but it had never been able to see private jails of feudal lords in Pakistan.

He accused the US of supporting elements who had looted the country’s exchequer and were involved in extra-judicial killings. But, he said, it never used a good word for the MQM in its reports, despite the fact that over 15,000 of its workers had been killed.

He said some religious and political parties were alleging that President Musharraf was doing everything at the behest of the US, but the fact was that all Pakistani leaders were following the US dictates.

Citing the examples of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, he said when the two former prime ministers were living abroad they always requested the US to intervene and get them cleared.

He said the US was giving aid to Pakistan and only for the war on terror it had provided $10 billion. “We are compelled to accept the dictates of these powers because we are heavily indebted. If we want to become a sovereign state we will have to eliminate corruption and work hard.”

He appealed to political and religious parties to forget the past, accept each other with open heart, try together to rid the country of debt and work for the solidarity and progress of Pakistan.

He offered an apology to parties which might have been affected directly or indirectly by the MQM.

PAKISTAN Human rights crisis in Karachi SUMMARY FEBRUARY 1996 AI INDEX: ASA 33/01/96 DISTR:SC/CO [2]

SUMMARY FEBRUARY 1996 AI INDEX: ASA 33/01/96 DISTR: SC/CO

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA33/001/1996
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