Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) Rabita Committee late on Sunday night appealed to Altaf Hussain asking him to take back his decision regarding the hunger strike. Earlier, Altaf Hussain on Sunday released a statement in which he announced his decision to go on a hunger strike unto death in protest. The MQM chief has decided to go on a hunger strike against what he calls ‘illegal’ detention of his party activists by security forces.According to the statement given, preparations are being made for the hunger strike, and it will commence once permission is received from the local administration in London. “I have promised the people that I will die rather than bow my head in front of tyrants,” said Hussain on Sunday.Earlier on Friday, a contingent of Rangers paramilitary force raided Nine Zero, the headquarters of MQM, in Karachi’s Azizabad neighbourhood and detained two members of MQM’s Rabita Committee. This is the second raid by Rangers on Nine Zero this year. According to an earlier press release issued by Sindh Rangers, Qamar Mansoor and Kaiful Warah were arrested from Azizabad on the charges of “arranging and facilitating hate speeches against the peace of Karachi” Since the start of ranger’s operation, Altaf Hussain, the party’s chief, has been breathing fire every now and then. In his last statement, he said any move to remove him from the MQM leadership would turn the streets of Karachi into battlegrounds. Not long ago, he had asked his followers to learn to fight. Anyone following the news has a good idea of who is leading the law-enforcement operation in Karachi. It is certainly is not the People’s Party government in Sindh. Some say it is not even the federal government led by the PML-N, though it cheers like a spectator from the margins of the actual battlefield.There is speculation in Islamabad that key officials of MQM will be “brought to justice” or coerced to make create a new faction in the party in order to avoid unnecessary political vacuum. Some said former Karachi mayor Mustafa Kamal would play a role. But in response to reports that Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf had asked him to join his party, Mustafa Kamal told a TV channel he had “no intentions to re-enter politics”.Meanwhile, several unauthenticated documents went viral on social media. They seemed to corroborate the BBC report. Among them was a reported statement by Tariq Mir, an MQM leader, to the London police, in which he had allegedly said MQM had taken funds from India. London police said the document was not Tariq Mir’s official police statement, but did not conform or deny if the contents were similar. There is no denying fact that MQM is in trouble because it has constantly failed to clear it from allegations. Before hunger strike MQM cheif also threatened to go to UN against army’s atrocities. However such tactics may not work because all the allegations against MQM are clear. Rather than observing hunger strike and going to UN, MQM should come clean on the accusations levelled against the party and its leadership.
pk.shafaqna.com
Would Altaf Hussain’s hunger strike solve MQM’s problems?
