KARACHI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Ali Zaidi has written an open letter to Chief of the Army Staff General Raheel Sharif, seeking a clarification about the current status of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) after its leader’s Aug 22 anti-Pakistan diatribe.

In his Aug 27 letter which he shared with the media through Twitter and WhatsApp on Monday, the PTI’s former Karachi division president asked five questions, besides reminding the army chief of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s March 1948 speech in which he had warned of the “fifth columnists” and said the government must deal with them “ruthlessly”.

Mr Zaidi claimed that the MQM had been created by ex-president Gen Ziaul Haq and further aided/facilitated by former military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf. Therefore, by default, the responsibility to clean up the mess created by “your [Gen Raheel’s] predecessors sadly falls on your shoulders”.

Praising Rangers for their efforts to restore “relative peace” to Karachi, the PTI leader said that following MQM chief Altaf Hussain’s Aug 22 anti-Pakistan speech, the party should be banned and those still supporting it be held accountable.

He then asked how can anyone differentiate between the MQM-London and the MQM-Pakistan when it comes to the arrest of a target killer? The question refers to an Aug 23 press conference by Dr Farooq Sattar, deputy convener of the MQM’s coordination committee, in which he declared that the party’s policies would now be decided in Pakistan, and not by its London secretariat.

Later in the evening, after the arrest of a few suspected MQM workers, a Rangers press release referred to them as those belonging to the London secretariat — a clear division which was never seen in their earlier press statements.

Mr Zaidi also questioned the right of the MQM supremo to hold press conferences, despite FIRs having been registered against him. “Will we start giving the same privilege to leaders of banned religious outfits?” he wondered.

He asked how a political party “with questionable and/or no loyalty to Pakistan be allowed to contest elections, rig the mandate and then govern the largest and most important city”.

Without mentioning the name of Waseem Akhtar, the PTI leader wondered how a man responsible for the May 12, 2007, bloodbath got elected Karachi mayor from behind bars.

Referring to the Mustafa Kamal-led Pak Sarzameen Party, Mr Zaidi asked how those, who were associated with the party, “suddenly dry-cleaned just because they jumped a sinking ship?”

He ends his letter by drawing parallels between the MQM and the Nazi Party in Germany and recalled that the latter won a mandate in March 1933 as well, “but can the subsequent genocide committed by them be justified because of their mandate?”

“I want my peaceful Karachi back,” said the letter signed off by Mr Zaidi as “a concerned citizen of Pakistan”.

Talking to Dawn on phone from Dubai, the PTI leader said that there were “five similar letters which will be sent to higher-ups in the coming days.”

Mr Zaidi clarified that the purpose of writing to the COAS is “not to seek military intervention” and said it was his “right as a citizen of Pakistan to question my general [the army chief] who is responsible for my protection. I’m a Pakistani first and then a member of a political party.”

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2016