Waseem Akhtar calls for Mirza's house arrest under MPO

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Member National Assembly (MNA) Waseem Akhtar demanded to put former Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza under house-arrest on Monday.

Akhtar asserted that Mirza should be put under house-arrest under Article 16 of Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) adding that Mirza wants to disrupt peace in Karachi with the help of bandits.

He also requested President Zardari to resolve issues between Mirza and Rehman Malik.

Meanwhile MQM chief Altaf Hussain appealed in a statement to his party workers to remain calm and peaceful despite Mirza’s heated statements.

Earlier on Sunday after a trip from overseas, Mirza launched into a diatribe against the MQM, just three days after it formally rejoined the ruling coalition led by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

He addressed a press conference at the Peoples Stadium in Lyari lashing out against MQM chief Altaf Hussain and calling the PPP-MQM coalition a conspiracy to break up the country.

Mirza blamed the MQM for several crimes in Karachi including murder, extortion, robbery and even rape. He claimed that he would ‘expose’ the MQM taking ‘evidence’ he has against the party and its chief to courts in the United Kingdom.

This Articel Orignaly Published at Express Tribun

MQM back in govt

KARACHI: For the umpteenth time, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement has rejoined the federal and provincial governments and decided to help the Pakistan People’s Party solve the many problems that ail the country.

At a joint press conference with Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad announced on Wednesday night that Muttahida ministers would resume their responsibilities.

He added that the chief minister would decide portfolios for MQM ministers.

The MQM left the coalition on June 27 in protest against the postponement of elections on two seats of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly.

Most of the portfolios held by 14 MQM ministers in the provincial cabinet before June 27 were subsequently allocated to other MPAs. The MQM also had one adviser to the chief minister.

However, in the federal cabinet, the three ministerial positions held by as many Muttahida MNAs were not handed over to others.

The press conference was preceded by 90-minute negotiations where the finishing touches were put to the agreement — unexplained, like previous deals — between the PPP and the MQM.

President Asif Ali Zardari, MQM supremo Altaf Hussain and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani were consulted by the governor.

Standing around the chief minister and the governor were Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid Shah, Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wasan and Local Government Minister Agha Siraj Durrani of the PPP and Dr Farooq Sattar, Dr Sagheer Ahmad, Adil Siddiqui and Waseem Aftab of the MQM.

Governor Ibad said that Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik — whom he praised along with Babar Awan for his peacemaking role — was supposed to attend the press conference, but could not do so on account of some other engagement.

He said the president — whose Aug 19 remarks on challenges facing Pakistan were alluded to — and the prime minister remained in contact with the MQM chief, who decided in the national interest to help the government face the challenges.

Without explaining why, Governor Ibad said the decision to rejoin the ruling coalition was a difficult one for the MQM. Read more

Altaf retracts allegations

KARACHI, Sept 19: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain has retracted allegations he levelled earlier this month against Awami National Party (ANP) chief Asfandyar Wali Khan.

At a press conference on Sept 9, Mr Hussain had alleged that the United States had given millions of dollars to Mr Khan to contest the 2008 general election.

The allegation triggered a war of words between the MQM and ANP with each party calling upon the government to ban the other.

In a statement issued from London on Monday, the MQM leader recalled that in his press conference he had said he had no proof but heard that the ANP chief had accepted millions of dollars from the US.

“I take back my words and express sorrow for hurting the sentiments of Asfandyar Wali and leaders and workers of the ANP,” he said. “I want to end bitterness because peace and stability, needed by Pakistan at this juncture, can be only appreciated by those who are giving sacrifices for security of the country.”(Dawn News)

Clinton focuses on Haqqani network in talks with Khar

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON: “The first and the last thing” on US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s agenda for her three-and-a-half-hour meeting with Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar was counter-terrorism, particularly the issue of the Haqqani network, says the US State Department.

Secretary Clinton met Ms Khar in New York on Sunday evening and were “fully up to date” on the meetings between US and Pakistani military leaders in Spain two days ago, US officials said.

Later, the State Department released an unusually candid account of the meeting, with two senior officials telling reporters how the meeting was planned, how it proceeded and what subjects were discussed.

The two officials explained that when Secretary Clinton was given the schedule of her meetings during the current UN General Assembly, she said she did not just want 20 or 30 minutes with the Pakistani foreign minister, but wanted to “really sit down and talk and have a conversation about where Pakistan and the United States were headed”.

Secretary Clinton wanted to make sure that she was given “the time and respect to hear Pakistan’s views, and we hope that they would similarly listen to ours”, one of the officials said.

But the Sept 13 attacks on the US Embassy and Nato headquarters in Kabul changed the nature of the meeting.

“And although it still lasted a good long time and we did review the whole nature of our relationship, the issue of counter-terrorism and particularly the issue of the Haqqani network was, as you can imagine, the first thing on the secretary’s agenda and also the last,” the official said.

“The Secretary’s message was that given the efforts of the Haqqani network on the 13th of September, that this was an issue that we had to deal with and that this is a threat to both Pakistan and the United States.”

The Pakistani foreign minister was quite clear in return that “they couldn’t condemn more” the Sept 13 attacks and that this kind of terrorism was a threat to Pakistan and to Pakistanis as well.

“That part of the conversation concluded that joint efforts need to be made to end this threat from the Haqqanis, and that Pakistan and the United States ought to be working together on this and not separately,” said the US official. “And I thought it was important that both ministers committed themselves to working on this as a matter of priority.”

The rest of the conversation focused on three issues: the Afghan-led and Afghan-owned reconciliation process, the regional aspects of bringing peace to Afghanistan and bringing prosperity to the South Asian region.

Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir briefed the US side on last week’s meeting of the Pak-Afghan commission and the two sides discussed their joint goals for reconciliation in Afghanistan.

While discussing a regional approach for bringing peace to Afghanistan, the two sides also reviewed the upcoming meetings in Istanbul on Nov 2 and in Bonn on Dec 5 and the role that Pakistan was interested in and could play to support that regional effort.

Secretary Clinton talked about the idea of the New Silk Road, her vision of an economic space between Central Asia and India that she proposed in Chennai earlier this year.

Foreign Minister Khar raised economic issues that were important to Pakistan, like market access and the reconstruction opportunity zones.

“Can you say whether the secretary requested and whether the minister agreed to for Pakistan to take additional action against the Haqqani network?” the two officials were asked.

“Well, there are two things. One is that there are clearly actions that the Pakistanis could take to go after the Haqqani network, and I thought the minister was quite clear in saying that those were the kinds of things that the Pakistani government would look at and would take action on. And then secondly, there are those things that it might be possible to do jointly. And so there was a conversation about what those kinds of things might entail as well,” one of the officials replied.

“The secretary did suggest specific things that Pakistan could do to go after them more strongly?” a journalist asked.

“What we said was that this is a huge problem and that Pakistan’s got to deal with it,” the official replied.

“Was the Haqqani network literally the first and the last thing that they talked about in this meeting?” asked another journalist.rEAD MORE AT DAWN.COM

Blast in Karachi, causalities feared

KARACHI: Several people were injured and vehicles damaged when a huge blast occurred in Defence area within the limits of Darakhshan police station, Geo News reported.

Blast was carried out outside the residence of SSP CID Chaudhary Aslam at Street 32. Casualties are feared in the blast. Windows of nearby building were smashed in the blast.

Rescue and relief teams have rushed to the site of the blast. Police and other LEAs have reached the spot.

The News Pk

Karachi situation to improve after SC verdict, says CJ

KARACHI: A special bench of the Supreme Court was hearing the suo motu case on the violence in Karachi on Wednesday, DawnNews reported.

The special bench is headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry and includes Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Sarmad Jalal Osmany, Ghulam Rabbani and Amir Hani Muslim.

During the hearing, Chief Justice Iftikhar remarked that after the apex court’s decision on the case, the government would become alert and Karachi’s conditions would improve.

He moreover said that if Karachi’s situation was worse than that of Waziristan, then how could the government be termed as successful.

Also during today’s proceedings, counsel for the federal government, Babar Awan, said that international powers were trying to prove that Pakistan was a failed state and if the court’s judgment was along similar lines then that would have a negative impact.

To that, the court said that a government’s failure was not the failure of the state.(Dawn.com)

Heavy rains cripple Karachi; businesses, schools closed

KARACHI: Floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains crippled Pakistan's biggest city and commercial hub of Karachi on Tuesday, with few people able to make it to work or school.

In Karachi, the capital of Sindh, rain was forecast through Wednesday at least.
Rains that began Monday evening still continuing in the city. The convoy of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was also stuck.

Many streets were impassable, cars were stuck, several fuel stations were inundated and no visible efforts were underway to drain water.

"We have recorded 50-100 mm (2 to 4 inches) of rain in Karachi and the situation is pretty bad. Many main roads and areas are inundated at the moment and it can turn even worse," said Mohammad Hussain Syed, the city's district coordination officer.

He said no casualties had been recorded.

The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) will close at the usual 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, reversing an earlier decision to close at noon because of floods in Pakistan's commercial capital, an exchange official said.

"I thought I would be able to make it to work, but it was a wrong decision. Now I am stuck. My car has broken down and I can't even find anyone for help," said banker Khalid Hussain, standing knee-deep in water. (The News Pk)