KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain has raised questions over the recording of a video message of Saulat Mirza hours before he was to be executed. He said he would lodge a case against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and heads of intelligence agencies over the matter.

Participating in a TV talk show on telephone on Thursday, he asked: “From where came the Saulat Mirza’s video? How it came out from the death cell hours before his execution? I would lodge an FIR for that against the prime minister and heads of intelligence agencies.”

He also said that the party’s coordination committee had been suspended twice over reports of deteriorating situation in Karachi and some 50 workers sacked.

Know more: Killed KESC chief on Altaf Hussain's orders, Saulat Mirza claims

“My house was raided, but can anyone tell me the name of the leader of any party who suffered the same treatment?” he asked.

In the same show, PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah endorsed the MQM chief’s contention and said there was no precedent in the world of a death row convict having been allowed to broadcast his video message hours before his execution.

Saulat Mirza had levelled serious allegations against Mr Hussain, Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad and other MQM leaders and said that he and other workers had been used by the party and then “thrown away like a tissue paper”.

He made the charges in a nine-minute statement aired by almost all news channels. It was not clear how and when the interview was recorded in Balochistan’s Mach jail where he was to be executed.

In the TV show, the MQM chief denied that former city Nazim Mustafa Kamal and Anis Qaimkhani had been expelled from the party. He also rejected law-enforcement agencies’ claim about recovery of foreign arms during the raid on MQM headquarters Nine Zero and its adjoining areas.

“Had we had US arms, no one would have dared to say anything,” he said.

“I did not blame anyone. The army was mine yesterday and it’s mine today. For betterment of the country, I tried to talk to the prime minister and the interior minister earlier in the day, but they couldn’t be contacted,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2015

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