ISLAMABAD: Senior MQM leader Faisal Sabzwari has categorically stated that the Muttahida does not have any militant wing and made it clear on Monday that his party would not offer any kind of support to any criminal, including the target killers, even if such a person had blood relations with any leader of the party.
“We have nothing to do with violence. Politics and violence can’t go together,” he said, adding that the suspect target killers, who are shown to have been associated with the MQM, should be tried and punished as per the law of the land.
“We believe in accountability and would not offer political support to anyone, even amongst our party men, who is accused to having been involved in any criminal activity,” Sabzwari said.
When approached for his party’s version on the Sindh Home Department’s “Joint Interrogation Reports of Accused Arrested in Target Killing 2010”, he said that he did go through the list of the accused target killers along with the brief about the crime they allegedly committed. The young Muttahida leader said, “We are very much clear that they (amongst the accused target killers) might be or have been associated with the party but the MQM has nothing to do with any such person.”
When asked about the confession of different accused persons, including Muhammad Ishtiaq alias Salman alias Police Wala, in which they blamed the MQM of having been involved in the target killings in Karachi, he said that confessions and disclosures do not mean anything unless such serious allegations are proved in the court of law.
He said that in the past too, the MQM was blamed for running a militant wing but it had never been the policy of the party. “You can’t do two things (politics and violence) side by side,” he said, terming such reports as baseless and without any substance. He also rejected the alleged involvement of Dr Imran Farooq, who was murdered last year, in any illegal and criminal act and portrayed him as one of the best leaders the MQM had produced.
“He was a soft-spoken person, having close association with Altaf Bhai but was inflexible rather than stern on organisational matters of the party. He would never allow anyone to be above the rules of the party,” Sabzwari said, ruling out the late leader’s involvement in any criminal activity.
Regarding the disclosures and confessions in the Joint Interrogation Reports and that 14 out of the 26 accused arrested in target killing cases belonged to the MQM, he said, first it was for the court to prove these allegations.
Secondly, he said that only a recent report of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan proves that 75% of those killed by the target killers belonged to the MQM. Sabzawari hinted that the MQM was being negatively portrayed after it took a principled decision on the issue of NRO, which also resulted in the reopening of all criminal cases against the MQM leaders and activists too.
He said that the kind of violence the MQM leaders and their workers had faced in the past was unprecedented but proved the point that violence was no solution and through violence you cannot suppress others.
He said Karachi has seen killings and clashes on both ethnic and political basis but none is commendable. He recalled that the leaders of the MQM lost their near and dear ones in past violence. “Altaf Bhai lost his real brother and a nephew. I lost my real uncle, who was brutally tortured and savagely murdered not for any of his crimes but because of his views.”
Reiterating his party’s resolve to leave it to the courts to decide the fate of target killers irrespective of their party affiliation or personal connections, he reminded that in the past, concocted confessions were extracted and poor charges were framed, which could not stand a fair trial.
He did not rule out the presence of possible anti-social or criminal elements in the MQM but said that the party had no place for such elements, which were expelled or suspended as soon as their tendencies were uncovered.
“We have suspended or expelled almost 6,000 workers during the last seven to eight years because of similar reasons,” he said, adding that the MQM, being the masses’ party, can’t afford to pursue violence.
