ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has lashed out at Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain and said that the remarks made by him against Rangers in his Sunday’s speech were unacceptable.

“We have exercised high degree of patience and tolerance but the time has come to formally take up with the United Kingdom the matter of such outbursts,” the interior minister said in a statement issued here on Monday.

He observed that Mr Hussain’s speeches were extremely provocative and mischievous. No country in the world can allow anyone to level baseless allegations against security and defence institutions from abroad.

He said it appeared that as the noose was tightening around him for what he termed his misdeeds in the United Kingdom, Mr Hussain was venting his anger on Pakistan’s security institutions. Pakistan, its armed forces or Rangers, he added, were not responsible for the situation in which Mr Hussain had landed himself.

However, the minister did not clearly state if he was referring to the money laundering case against Mr Hussain and others or the Dr Imran Farooq murder case.

Nisar says time to take up with the UK the issue of outbursts against security institutions

Chaudhry Nisar said it was regrettable the MQM chief had used the same language about the break-up of Pakistan in 1971 as was used by India.

He observed that the Urdu-speaking community generally comprised civilised people, and asked if Mr Hussain was representing the community or ridiculing it by using abusive and indecent language.

Chaudhry Nisar’s statement was the first official reaction to the remarks made by the MQM chief.

In an address to his supporters on Sunday, Mr Hussain had accused the director general of Sindh Rangers of violating the army’s code of conduct and urged Army Chief General Raheel Sharif to take notice of it and do justice.

According to a video circulating on social media, Mr Hussain severely criticised the DG Rangers. “We are not against the army but against rotten eggs in institutions,” he said and asked if the military forces had the authority to charge-sheet a political party.

Published in Dawn ,July 14th, 2015

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