KARACHI: In what appears to be an attempt to bring down the rising political temperature, Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain has apologised to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s information secretary Shireen Mazari as well as other women members and supporters of the party for having made unsavoury remarks against them.

“I apologise to all wom­en who were hurt by my statements,” Mr Hussain said while talking to a private news channel on Tuesday evening. “I apologise to Shireen Mazari...I am sorry,” he said twice.

The apology came an hour after the culmination of a big MQM rally held at Karachi’s Shahrah-i-Quaideen to express solidarity with Mr Hussain and vent anger on PTI Chairman Imran Khan for his diatribe against the Muttahida leadership.

It all started when the PTI and Jamaat-i-Islami took a hard stance against the MQM following the submission to court of a Rangers’ report which blamed the Muttahida for the deadly Baldia Town factory fire.

Addressing the participants of a function held in Hyderabad in the small hours of Sunday to celebrate the ground-breaking of the Altaf Hussain University, the MQM chief had made certain derogatory remarks against Ms Mazari and women supporters of the PTI’s Islamabad sit-in.

On Monday, Imran Khan lashed out at Mr Hussain at a press conference and asked the MQM to dissociate itself from its London-based leader.

In a tit-for-tat reaction, the MQM also held a press conference and hit back at Mr Khan and his party.

The war of words between the two parties got nasty on Tuesday when the PTI chief again criticised Mr Hussain and MQM leaders spoke against him at their rally.

The people of Karachi watched the verbal brawl between the two parties with bated breath while Mr Khan announced that he was going to Karachi on Wednesday and the MQM leaders vowed not to allow the PTI to hold even a small public meeting in the city.

However, at last better sense prevailed and Mr Hussain offered the apology to Ms Mazari and all women members of the PTI in the TV programme.

In the same programme, Ms Mazari accepted the apology and said: “If same sort of things are repeated then we will not be afraid and will react to the situation accordingly.”

Earlier, the MQM took out a rally from the party’s Nine Zero headquarters in Azizabad. A large number of workers attended the rally which reached Shahrah-i-Quaideen in the evening.

The event was aimed at expressing solidarity with Mr Hussain and almost every speaker made it clear that no-one could separate him from the MQM.

As the crowd kept on shouting slogans in favour of their leader and against Mr Khan, MQM’s Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Dr Farooq Sattar, Babar Ghauri and other leaders strongly criticised Mr Khan and called him a Taliban supporter. They also brought the issue of Mr Khan’s alleged daughter to heap scorn on him.

Babar Ghauri said the people of Karachi would not let the PTI hold even a small public meeting.

But later in the evening, Mr Hussain expressed his displeasure over certain remarks made by some MQM leaders against the PTI chief. According to an MQM statement, Mr Hussain told MPA Rauf Siddiqui: “Imran Khan is a citizen of Pakistan and whenever he visits Karachi the MQM will welcome him.”

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2015

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