Zulfiqar Mirza resigns from Sindh Assembly, blasts MQM

Senior Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader and Sindh Senior Minister Dr Zulfiqar Ali Mirza on Sunday announced his resignation from his party post as vice president of PPP Sindh chapter as well as membership of the Sindh Assembly.

Addressing a crowded press conference at the Karachi Press Club, he expressed serious reservations on
the policy of government about the law and order situation in Karachi.

He said he would continue to work as an ordinary party worker. He harshly criticized Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik and termed him a compulsive liar and a threat to Pakistan’s security.

He said he had already told his party leadership that Malik could not be relied upon. He said that only one person is responsible for all killings in Karachi and that person is Rehman Malik.

Mirza leveled serious allegations on Muttahida Quami Movement and its chief Altaf Hussain. He termed the MQM and its head responsible for target killings in Karachi. He accused the Sindh Governor Ishratul Ibad of patronizing target killers.

He revealed that the police department was highly corrupt and that police stations in Karachi are being auctioned to the highest bidders.

Zulfiqar Mirza alleged that during a meeting in London MQM chief Altaf Hussain had told him that America and world powers had decided to break up Pakistan and he (Altaf Hussain) had supported their idea.

He claimed that Altaf Hussain had demanded disbanding of ISI. He further alleged that MQM was patronizing killers and criminals. He also claimed that journalist Wali Khan Baber was also killed by the MQM.

He said he was sorry for his earlier comments for the people who had migrated from India. He said he respects Urdu speaking people and that many of his close relatives are also Urdu speaking.

He said that those people who want to breakup Pakistan are pitiful. He hoped that the Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry would summon him in the hearing of the case regarding Karachi target killings.

Zulfiqar Mirza said that he would remain a loyal worker of the PPP. He said if something happened to him those behind the Karachi killings and those behind the murder of Dr Imran Farooq would be responsible for it. He said that he would spend the rest of his life fighting for the rights of the oppressed people of Sindh.

 

http://www.dawn.com/2011/08/28/zulfiqar-mirza-resigns-from-sindh-assembly.html

 

Clash between MQM and MQM haqiqi in Karachi

KARACHI (Xinhua) – At least seven people were killed and a dozen other were injured on Friday as supporters of two groups from ethnic Urdu-speaking community clashed in some parts of the Pakistani port city of Karachi, police sources and witnesses said.

Armed activists of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Muhajir Qaumi Movement (MQM-Haqqiqi) exchanged fire in Malir district which later spread to Landhi area, police said.

The clashes started after the MQM-Haqqiqi group led by Afaq Ahmed resisted attempt by the MQM to take control of Kokhrapar area in Malir, which had been stronghold of Haqqiqi group. Five activists of MQM were killed in Malir.

In retaliation, the MQM supporters attacked the Haqqiqi men in Landhi and killed two of its supporters.

A total of 12 people from both sides were injured in clashes continued for several hours.

Witnesses said that the Haqqiqi men also occupied five offices of MQM in Malir area after the clash.

The paramilitary force and police failed to control the firing.

Markets were closed and transport off the road as the clashes started early morning.

Karachi, the capital of Sindh province and Pakistan’s commercial center, has seen series of ethnic and political violence in recent weeks.

Scores of people were killed and many more were injured in clashes earlier this month between ethnic Muhajir and Pashtuns.

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=708859&publicationSubCatego%20ryId=200

 

MQM declared a terrorist organization by UNHCR

Pakistan: Information on Mohajir/Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Altaf (MQM-A)

Query:

Provide information on the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Altaf (MQM-A) in Pakistan.

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.

Source: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/414fe5aa4.html