Zulfiqar Mirza resigns: Lashes out at Malik, MQM

Zulfiqar Mirza resigns: Lashes out at Malik, MQM

Updated at: 1629 PST, Monday, August 29, 2011

KARACHI: Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza on Sunday, resigned as senior minister of Sindh, vice president of PPP Sindh and as an MPA after developing serious differences with the government and party leadership. His resignation was accepted immediately by Sindh Chief Minister, Qaim Ali Shah. In an explosive emergency press conference at the Karachi Press Club, Mirza said he would remain loyal to the party but lashed out at federal interior minister, Rehman Malik. He called the interior minister a compulsive and incorrigible liar, who he said was hand in glove with killers in Karachi. Rehman Malik: Venting his wrath at Rehman Malik, he said that Malik was hand in glove with the killers in Karachi and that he (Mirza) had proof in this regard, which he wanted to present before the Army chief, ISI and the prime minister. He said when the PM recently chaired a ‘forced session’ of the Sindh cabinet at the CM House in the evening, around 22 minutes later, Rehman Malik called Governor Sindh and MQM leader Anis Qaimkhani. He said Malik then embraced and kissed Mirza and told him he fully supported him. He said when the PM summoned him to his chamber, Rehman Malik said that Mirza had done injustice with the MQM and due to his (Mirza’s) attitude Malik had lost his best friend Altaf Hussain. Mirza said Rehman Malik was a “100 per cent compulsive liar.” He said Malik could have been a better politician and administrator if only he told 50 percent less lies. He opined that there was a method to the madness of Rehman Malik who supported the party of Altaf Bhai to protect his own interests. He said if this country suffered losses, Rehman Malik should be held responsible because ‘he was the greatest enemy of Pakistan.’ He said Malik had no stakes in this country as his family lived in England. Mirza said he did not consider Malik the killer of Benazir Bhutto but he (Malik) had failed to protect Benazir as a Jiyala. Later that night while participating in a special episode of Geo News program ‘Capital Talk’, Mirza said he had reached his tipping point because Rehman Malik was trying to free the killers of police commandos recently killed in Karachi. He said that one Kamran Madhuri, who was involved in the ambush of the police commandos vehicle, had been arrested in an injured condition along with two other accomplices. Mirza claimed that Malik had fabricated a false case against Madhuri and others and wanted to move them to Islamabad under the pretext of investigations for this case but in reality wanted to facilitate their release or escape from there. Accusations against MQM: In another major charge, Mirza first held the holy Quran over his head and then accused MQM chief, Altaf Hussain of being in cahoots with the Americans in a conspiracy to break up Pakistan. Swearing on the Holy Quran, Mirza said Altaf Hussain invited him and senior minister Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq to his London office. When they were on their way to meet Altaf, they received a message that their scheduled meeting had been delayed since Altaf was himself preparing ‘Haleem’ for them. Mirza said they first held a meeting with Altaf which was also attended by the governor Sindh, Dr Ishratul Ebad, Dr Farooq Sattar and Anis Qaimkhani. Later, Altaf Hussain asked all the other MQM leaders to leave. He said he and Pir Mazhar were exchanging views about target killings with Altaf Hussain when he suddenly switched on a radio-like device in the room, saying their conversation might be recorded by the M15. Mirza said Altaf Hussain then told them that America had hatched a plan to break up Pakistan and he had come to know about it from well-connected people. Altaf Hussain told Mirza and Pir Mazhar that “he and his party had decided to support this American plan and therefore I (Altaf) will not stop the killing of Pakhtuns”, Mirza said, adding that he did not want to sit with a leader who wanted to destroy Pakistan at the behest of a foreign country. Mirza said he was in possession of letter, which purportedly Altaf Hussain had written to the then British Premier Tony Blair in 2001, offering to bring out hundreds of thousands of people in Karachi in support of any initiative or need of Tony Blair. At the end of his letter, Altaf Hussain urged Tony Blair to get the ISI disbanded before “it created more Osamas”. Mirza said it was instead the extra efforts and sacrifices of the Army and ISI that Pakistan was still intact. Mirza alleged that the MQM was involved in the killing of Geo reporter, Wali Babar. He said other alleged killers had been detained while one, Liaquat, was still missing. Mirza said besides him the MQM had also targeted President Asif Ali Zardari by sending letters to foreign diplomats. He said 15 persons were killed in the city and life was paralysed following Mirza’s ‘provocative statement’ but things suddenly turned normal when an order came from London. Mirza said he did not think that the MQM enjoyed 100 percent support of the people of Karachi and Hyderabad. He said the MQM got its mandate through manipulation and through the barrel of the gun while those whose mandate was snatched were the victims and oppressed like him. He said the MQM enjoyed 50 percent mandate because of the innocence and simplicity of citizens. Mirza said the MQM developed differences with him when in a Sindh cabinet meeting he refused to give an official plot on M.A. Jinnah Road worth Rs5 billion to the MQM and when he recruited 10,000 cops in the Sindh police, none of them being MQM sympathisers. He said he opposed the recruitment of MQM supporters in the police because one such cop, Ishtiaq Policewala, was involved in the killing of several policemen. Zulfiqar said the MQM also started opposing him when, in closed-door meetings, he talked against the MQM. Supreme Court: Mirza also urged the chief justice, who had taken suo moto notice of the target killings in Karachi, to summon him before the bench so he could provide it with exhaustive documentary evidence. While he was clearly in an unsparing mood he appreciated the role of the Army and ISI whose extra efforts, according to him, had ensured the survival of the country. CPLC Chief: The former home minister accused CPLC chief Ahmed Chinoy of being biased and partial. He said the CPLC, which was the gift of Benazir Bhutto to the city, was supposed to be an apolitical body. But Ahmed Chinoy was a member of the Khidmat-e-Khalq wing of the MQM. He said Chinoy was appointed on the insistence of the Sindh governor and a phone call also came from London in his favour. Mirza said when he took charge the number of kidnapped persons was 70 and came down to 17 when he left the home ministry. “But if you talk to Ahmed Chinoy, he will exaggerate the figure of kidnapped persons,” Mirza said, adding that the CPLC knew who was demanding extortion and forced Fitra but its chief, whose credentials were dubious, would never tell the true story. Lyari Operation: To a question about the Rangers operation in Lyari and discovery of two torture cells there, Zulfiqar Mirza said torture cells were also discovered during the operation of Gen. Naseerullah Babar and during another operation carried out by the Nawaz Sharif government following the assassination of former Governor Hakeem Saeed. He said if those torture cells were bona fide, then Lyari’s torture cells are also bona fide and if those were fake, then Lyari’s cells have also fake. Mirza said Karachi has a history of violence and killings and the emergence of the People’s Amn Committee was a recent phenomenon. He said the people of Lyari were deprived people and their fault is that they called a spade a spade. However he avoided a direct reply to the question of whether the Rangers’ operation in Lyari on Sunday was the real bone of contention with the government and party leadership but hundreds of people from Lyari were demonstrating outside the KPC in Mirza’s support when he was addressing the press conference Karachi Violence: Mirza said he sought 15 days from his party leadership to restore peace in the city but was not given a free hand. He said he had offered his party leadership that they could hang him and seize all his property if he failed to maintain law and order in the metropolis. Mirza admitted that he felt himself morally responsible for whatever had happened in the city in the last three-and-a-half years. He defended his performance as Sindh home minister, saying he appointed honest police officers and discarded the practice of ‘selling’ the police stations. He said he gave Rs30 million as awards to policemen from his own pocket and also provided Rs5 million from his pocket to get Satish Anand released from Taliban captivity. REACTION TO MIRZA’S STATEMENTS Rehman Malik: Interior Minister, Rehman Malik denied all allegations leveled against him by Zulfiqar Mirza. He said he was fighting a war against terrorists and had never talked to any target killers. He said Zulfiqar Mirza was an emotional person and called him his younger brother. MQM: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Coordination Committee said on Sunday that it was because of PPP leader Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza's patronage of killers, terrorists, extortionists and kidnappers that he kept silent when the Rangers carried out an operation in other parts of Karachi, except Lyari. A joint meeting of the MQM Coordination Committee was simultaneously held in Karachi and London after Mirza's press conference. The committee strongly condemned the allegations leveled by Mirza, calling them false, malicious and disparaging. In a statement, the MQM committee said when the Rangers moved against criminal elements in Lyari, Zulfiqar Mirza started criticising Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who was overseeing the operation. The committee said it amply demonstrated that Mirza was directly involved in the bloodbath in Karachi. The committee demanded that President Asif Ali Zardari and the senior leadership of the PPP take serious note of the absurd allegations and explain the party's position. The MQM committee asserted it was Zulfiqar Mirza who was aiding and abetting killers, terrorists, kidnappers, dacoits and other criminals involved in heinous offences. It said the operations against killers, terrorists, kidnappers and hardened criminals involved in heinous crimes must continue. US Embassy: The US Embassy in Pakistan has said that the statement of senior minister of Sindh Zulfiqar Mirza about Altaf Hussain conspiring with the US to break up Pakistan is beyond comprehension. The embassy, while abstaining from issuing any comment or giving a reaction to Zulfiqar Mirza’s allegation regarding the disintegration of Pakistan by the US, said that his charge was beyond understanding and a reply would be given after detailed consideration.