KARACHI: A fresh war of words between the Sindh Home Minister and Muttahida Qaumi Movement erupted on Sunday after Dr Zulfiqar Mirza said that the People’s Amn Committee was a sister organisation of the PPP and dubbing all its members as criminals would be tantamount to levelling the same allegation against him.The MQM said the statement meant the minister’s ‘open support’ for criminals and terrorists and said it was considering to part ways with the PPP-led coalition government in Sindh.

Addressing a public meeting in Malir held in the memory of slain PPP leader Abdullah Murad Baloch, Dr Mirza said members of the Amn Committee were “soldiers of the PPP and our children and children do commit mistakes. They are not guillotined for the mistakes but steps are taken to reform them.”

He said Lyari and Malir were the strongholds of the PPP and all the people living in the areas were not criminals. Similarly all the people of other localities were not angels. Dr Mirza said the PPP would shed its blood whenever the blood of activists of the committee would be shed.

The minister said all cases registered against the people of the two areas by the previous governments would be reviewed.

He said Murad Baloch had been killed for raising his voice for the oppressed people.

He said the government had come into power through the vote and people had the right to grab the leaders with their collars if they neglected their problems and failed to deliver.

Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah said those who had parted ways with the government would soon realise the necessity of going along with the PPP.

He said people had voted the PPP into power whenever free elections were held.

The MQM and the home minister have several times in the past levelled allegations against each other, the former accusing Dr Mirza of patronising the People’s Amn Committee and the latter accusing the MQM of being involved in target killings. But their relationship started improving about a fortnight ago when Dr Mirza visited the MQM headquarters along with a high-powered PPP delegation apparently in a bid to appease the coalition partner which was unhappy with him due to his Dec 13, 2010, diatribe against it.

However, Sunday’s speech by Dr Mirza in which he announced that the People’s Amn Committee was a part and sister organisation of the PPP might prove to be the last straw that might break the camel’s back, as three important London-based MQM leaders urged the party’s coordination committee to quit the Sindh government.

Mohammad Anwar, Anis Advocate and Mohammad Ashfaq criticised the minister’s statement and said his alleged patronage of criminal elements was ‘intolerable’.

In a joint statement issued from the MQM’s international secretariat in London, they said: “The home minister confessed that he is the patron of terrorists of the People’s Amn Committee who were involved in extortion, kidnapping for ransom and robberies. People of Sindh are quite right to question whether a person who patronises criminal elements and declares the Amn Committee a sister organisation of the PPP should be the home minister of Sindh.”

MQM sources said the three leaders had requested the MQM coordination committee to part ways with the coalition government. “Their concerns have been communicated to the top leadership and we are reviewing the situation,” a senior leader said.

He said Interior Minister Rehman Malik twice contacted the MQM office in London on Sunday to pacify the situation.

“Mr Malik told our two leaders that he had apprised President Asif Zardari of the situation and he had taken strong notice of it. However, we told him that Dr Mirza should behave like a political leader and not as a supporter of terrorists. If the PPP wants to keep intact the coalition then they have to rein him in.”