MQM Founder & Leader Altaf Hussain criticises US court order

The-News


BHITSHAH: The Chief of Muttahida Qaumi Movement Altaf (MQM) Altaf Hussain strongly reacted to a purported order of a US Court seeking appearance of top Pakistani intelligence personnel to testify in a compensation suit in respect of Mumbai attack.

Pakistan is a sovereign state and if any conspiracy is hatched to malign Pakistan's defenders, US interest will be equally harmed, he said in his telephonic address from London to a public meeting at Malkhra Ground Bhitshah on Saturday.

The MQM Chief urged the government to take the nation and parliament into confidence on the issue.

He said that as a counter measure, a Pakistani court could be asked to issue similar orders in Dr Aafia case and may demand her repatriation.

Altaf Hussain opposed the implementation of RGST as the the people were hard pressed by price hike, unemployment, shortage of water, electricity and gas.

He asked the government to recover the funds of the donors agencies, allegedly plundered by the feudals. If the government wants revenue generation, tax net should be expanded by taxing feudals and landlords, he added.

He said that the MQM was striving for the rights of the poor.He demanded maximum provincial autonomy to the provinces and due share of Sindh in NFC Award.

He said that the MQM if voted to power, would hang those who were involved in honour killing and take punitive action against those who were involved in bonded labour. It would distyribue state land among landless peasants in a transparent manner.

He said that all conspiracies of creating hatred among the people of Sindh on the basis of language would be foiled.

He said that the MQM was the representative of oppressed class people and could not tolerate injustices with the common people. It had established its roots not only in Sindh but also in Punjab, Kashmir, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and Gilgit-Baltistan. It was not a linguistic party.

The party has now become the voice of the people of Sindh and other provinces of the country, he said and added that in the past division was created among rural and urban population of the province.

He said," an impression is being created that if the MQM quits power there will be communal riots but this time, the conspirators will not succeed in their designs as the people are fully aware that the party is struggling for their rights. The MQM is the only party which has ability to provide all basic rights to oppressed class."

Earlier, Federal Minister and Deputy Convener MQM Coordination Committee Dr. Farooq Sattar while addressing the meeting said that today's meeting would prove to be historic as it would be a first step from the land of Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai for elimination of feudalism and "Wadera Shahi" from the country particularly from Sindh.

He said that MQM has always supported the maximum provincial autonomy with financial rights as well as distribution of state owned land among landless peasants. The public meeting was also addressed by Member MQM Coordination Committee Ashfaq Mangi, provincial minister Nisar Panhwar, MPA Heer Soho, Umer Qureshi, Loung Khan Channa and Ghazi Salahuddin.

Among others, MQM central leadership including Saleem Shahzad, Anis Kaimkhani, former Nazim City District Government Karachi Mustafa Kmala and former Nazim Hyderabad District Kanwar Naveed Jamil were also present on the stage.

ISI will never be asked to appear before US court: PM

APP

ISLAMABAD, Dec 23 (APP): Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani assured the National Assembly on Thursday that ISI (Inter Services Agency), being the country’s extremely important and sensitive organization, would never be asked to appear before a US court. “We are as sensitive about this issue as any other in the House,” the Prime Minister said after Opposition Leader Ch. Nisar expressed apprehensions over summoning of the top intelligence agency officias by a US court.
The Prime Minister though refrained from announcing what he called a ‘policy statement’ on the issue, however, held out a firm assurance that a decision to that effect, if taken, would involve mutual consensus.
He dispelled the perception as if the government was not in the knowledge of certain important developments, saying “we are in know of everything.”
Turning to Balochistan, Gilani said law enforcement agencies, including Frontier Constabulary, Frontier Corps and Federal Investigation Agency, could not take actions on their own without the approval of the provincial government.
The Prime Minister said many a time the government took onboard the nation and all political leadership within as well as outside the House before it launched military offensives against terrorists in Malakand, Swat and South Waziristan Agency.
He said it was an important decision meant to improve law and order a pre-requisite for improving the economy. “Until and unless conducive law and order prevails (in the country), investment will not going to come, a single suicide blast undermines a very good scenario of investment,” he added.
The Prime Minster spelled out two top most priorities of the government that were attached to law and order and economy from day one, and said both were inter-related.
Gilani said it was unprecedented in the history of world that 2.5 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of militancy-hit areas of Pakistan returned to their homes within the short period of just three months. “It’s our success story,” he said.
Gilani said the whole nation and political leadership were united against terrorism which destablised country’s economy, besides other affairs.
The Prime Minister brushed aside the impression that the government would launch a military action after being influenced by either the US or any foreign country and termed such thoughts as not wise thinking.
“We are ready to sacrifice our lives for the sovereignty and integrity of Pakistan. There wouldn’t be any compromises,” the Prime Minister said.
He said thew nation would decide where to carry out military operation and no one else could dictate Pakistan over it.
The Prime Minister drew attention of the House towards involvement of foreign elements in Balochistan and asked everybody (in the House) to shoulder responsibility and be counted for improving the situation there. “Let’s devise a mutual strategy,” he added.
He commended the people of Balochistan and described them as patriotic as anyone in Pakistan. He said the people of Balochistan had rendered sacrifices for Pakistan.

‘Colonel impersonator identified as RAW Agent'

Tribune


LAHORE: A man arrested for impersonating a Pakistan Army colonel at the Bibian Pakdaman shrine a couple of weeks ago has told police interrogators that he was an Indian agent surveying sensitive sites in Lahore.

Police officials said that the man and his ‘driver’ were arrested when he tried to get past the final security cordon around the shrine.

When a constable asked him what unit he was with, the man claimed to be with the artillery regiment, but he was unable to say where the regiment was based. “He said that he left such ‘petty details’ to his driver and that he was working with a brigadier in GHQ,” the constable, Ishtiaq, told. He said that the suspect shouted “Ya Ali” several times while at the shrine to make people believe that he was a Shia.
Ishtiaq said that his suspicions had been aroused because the presumed colonel was wearing the wrong shoes and no badges. He said the man was arrested and taken to the Qila Gujjar Singh police post, where he was frisked.

On him they found badges of various army ranks and several military identity cards with his picture on them. He also carried a card belonging to a female officer who he claimed was his wife.

Constable Ishtiaq said that the suspect confessed to interrogators that he was with India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and had been tasked with reconnaissance of sensitive sites in Lahore. He also told the police that he had been in Pakistan for almost four months, and he was supposed to visit Data Darbar after Bibian Pakdaman.

Ishtiaq said that the man the suspect referred to as his driver, Hasan Ali, appeared to have been deceived by the impersonator. He said Ali was from Abbottabad and worked as a naib qasid in the federal government in Islamabad. Ali told the police that he had thought the ‘colonel’ a religious man and had been travelling to shrines with him as a companion.

“He thought the man must be a devout Shia since he wanted to go to all these different mausoleums. He had no clue that he was an Indian agent,” said Ishtiaq.

Police sources said that the suspect and Hasan Ali had been taken into custody by intelligence personnel and shifted to an undisclosed location.

The Qila Gujjar Singh deputy superintendent of police said he had no knowledge of the matter as he had just taken charge of the office.

ISI denies revealing CIA chief’s identity

Tribune

An official of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has denied that it was responsible for revealing the name of the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) top clandestine officer in Pakistan.

“We absolutely deny this accusation, which is totally unsubstantiated and based on nothing but conjecture,” a senior ISI official said in a background briefing at the ISI headquarters in Islamabad, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

The top CIA officer in Pakistan, Jonathan Banks, was removed yesterday after American officials said the CIA had received a number of death threats since being publicly identified in a lawsuit by Karim Khan, who alleged that his brother and son had been killed in a drone strike.

“This organisation has immense tolerance. We have cooperated to the hilt despite constant allegations levelled against us. But this story is the biggest bomb shell,” the official said, referring to the article published in The New York Times on Friday.

Claiming that the allegation had greater implications, the official said that the article seemed “intended to create rifts between the ISI and CIA.”

Some US officials had said that they strongly suspected that operatives of Pakistan’s spy service had a hand in revealing the CIA officer’s identity, possibly in retaliation for a civil lawsuit filed in New York last month implicating the ISI chief in the Mumbai terrorist attacks of November 2008. The ISI officials, in turn, pointedly denied these accusations.

The briefing by two senior officials included a litany of complaints as the officials accused western news organisations of continuously publishing  reports that “cast aspersions on the credibility of the spy organisation.”

Both officials claimed that ISI had an excellent working relationship with their counterparts in the CIA. “We regularly deal with the CIA and it has never communicated to us that they have doubts on our sincerity and credibility,” said one official.” In the briefing, the officials suggested that the conduct of CIA’s top officer might itself have been responsible for blowing the agent’s cover. “Americans have a vast access in Pakistan. They openly interact with civil society members, attend dinners and meetings,” one official said.