| DAWN/The News International, KARACHI | 3 January 2001, Wednesday, 7 Shawwal 1421 |
KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement has demanded re-framing of 1973 Constitution in the light of Pakistan Resolution of 1940 and full autonomy to the provinces, with only currency, foreign affairs and defence portfolios to remain with the federation.
This was stated by Deputy Convener of Muttahida's Coordination Committee Aftab Shaikh, while briefing journalists about a two-hour meeting of the leaders of Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) at Nine-Zero on Tuesday. Shaikh said the ARD team arrived here on the directives of Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan to hear from Muttahida about its grievances, demands and reservations on certain issues.
The ARD team included Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Khurshid Ali Shah of Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Shah Muhammad Shah and Mamnoon Hussain of Pakistan Muslim league (PML) and Asfandyar Wali Khan of Awami National Party (ANP), while Muttahida was represented by Nasreen Jalil, Shaikh Liaquat Hussain, Mustafa Kamal Rizvi, Khalid Bin Walid, Kunwar Naveed and Liaquat Qureshi.
Shaikh said the ARD team had been told that in the past serious crimes were committed by both the PPP and the PML governments against Muttahida and as such these parties should apologise to the masses, identify persons among their quarters, responsible for these crimes and initiate action against them.
Shaikh said that Muttahida had reiterated its stand on serious complaints and problems the party faced during the governments of PPP and PML, including murders, raids, arrests and extra judicial killings and victimisation of its leaders and workers. "Muttahida has stressed on complete change in the anti-Muttahida outlook and negative thinking of both PPP and PML. Muttahida's support send them to the corridors of power yet it faced the worst operation by their governments," Aftab Shaikh added.
Shaikh said that it was up to ARD leaders to chalk out ways and means for tendering apology for the injuries inflicted upon Muttahida. During the meeting Muttahida also made it a point that 1973 constitution of Pakistan be re-framed and except currency, defence and foreign affairs, all the portfolios be delegated to provinces within the frame-work of federation, the Deputy Convener of Muttahida Coordination Committee said.
To a question, he said that the talks between the ARD team and Muttahida leaders remained incomplete and similar meetings would be held in near future as well. "No new date for meetings has been finalised, however, the participants will inform their respective central committees and till the time we get any outcome of the Tuesday's meeting, Muttahida will neither host any ARD meeting nor take part in any of its meeting," Shaikh added.
The acting chairman of PPP Makhdoom Amin Fahim said that negotiation with Muttahida had not failed. "We are Pakistani and we never fail," he said and added that deliberations from both sides were made with openness and some more meetings would be held in this regard.
ARD might part ways with MQM: Provincial autonomy, extra-judicial killingsKARACHI: The Additional District & Sessions Judge Central, on Tuesday declared several top leaders of Muttahida Qaumi Movement, including Altaf Hussain, Dr Saghir Ansari, Khalid Murtaza, S M Moinuddin, Haroon Siddiqui, Prof A K Shams, Waseem Akthar and 14 others as absconders in a case of arsoning, rioting, attempted murder and encounter with police.
Altaf castigated for calling PML British agentKARACHI: The Pakistan Muslim League (PML) on Tuesday asked the self-exiled founder of the MQM, Altaf Hussain, to refrain from calling its earlier version at the time of independence an English agent while sitting the lap of former colonial power.
Mustajab Hasan, a PML spokesman, reminded a sceptical Altaf Hussain of the fact that the Muslim League leaders, including Nawab Saleemullah Khan, at the time of independence sacrificed their wealth for the independence movement. Criticising Altaf Hussain's utterance at the MQM's international secretariat in London, Hasan hoped that the words attributed to Altaf Hussain perhaps were not said by him or that they were misreported.
"At one point, Mr. Altaf claims himself a descendent of those who made Pakistan, while at this time he declares the PML, Pakistan's founding party, an English agent. He should refrain from labeling his elders as English agents and especially when he himself is sitting pretty in England," he added.
The PML divisional heads on Tuesday asked the rulers to learn a lesson from the incidents happened during the tumultuous 1971 because an attempt to induct any favourite leadership would never yield any positive result.
Raisullah Magsi, Haji Abdur Razzaq, Sadiq Samejo, Sardar Asrar Jakhrani, J Vishnu, and Qasim Bozdar from the PML Hyderabad, Sukkur, Ghotki, Jacobabad, Shikarpur and Dadu respectively demanded general elections in the country. "Public apathy towards the local bodies polls held in three districts of Sindh has endorsed the feeling that both elections and results are mockery. If the government is serious in marching towards democracy then it should immediately constitute an independent election commission for a general election."
They also alleged that the government was trying to form its C team by promoting new faces in the politics, which was vehemently opposed by the democratic people of Sindh. "Instead of repeating what other military rulers, including Gen. Ayub and Gen. Zia had done blatantly wrong, the present rulers should restore democracy and return to their originally allotted task," they added.
The general secretary of the PML, Capt. Haleem Siddiqui, on Tuesday denounced the third raise in petroleum prices since the military took over, deeming such hardship inflicted on the consumers to please the IMF and the World Bank would invite unemployment and price hike. "It is better for the army to return to barracks before the public trust in it is shaken."