December 29, 2009
MQM only party in Pakistan to consistently condemn Taliban terror
Nadeem F. Paracha in Dawn:
Condemning the Karachi attack, MQM chief Altaf Hussain, whose party has been triumphing in the electoral politics of the city ever since 1988, called the perpetrators of the devastating attack as ‘Yazids’ and once again advised Karachiites to boycott those parties whom he believes are sympathising with the Taliban cause. As mentioned above, ANP too has now criticised these parties, accusing them of encouraging the Talibans’ barbaric ways and agenda.
But who are these parties?
MQM has been highly critical of mainstream right-wing parties such as the Jamaat-i-Islami whose leadership has been in the forefront of popularising the notion that the Taliban are actually ‘freedom fighters’ (against ‘US imperialism’ in the region), and those who are attacking the civilians of Pakistan through bomb and suicide attacks are not Taliban but the ‘paid agents of anti-Islam forces.’
More here.
Posted by S. Abbas Raza at 04:46 AM | Permalink
Comments
ABBAS, I like your inclusion of Nadeem Pircha's writeup of the politics and the situation in pakistans with esp ref to karachi but the heading and the title at the top is unfortunate as it says Return of yazid and just below is the photo of Altaf Hussain. The body of the article and the picture donot go together and in fact deliver a wrong message to people who will just skim thr the blog and not actually read the whole article in Dawn or even your synopsis. Please be care full. Tariq K
Posted by: tariqkhan | Dec 29, 2009 9:25:21 AM
Thanks very much for pointing out the potential for misunderstanding, Ike. I completely agree and have changed the title of the post.
Yrs,
A
Posted by: Abbas Raza | Dec 29, 2009 9:41:10 AM
good grief.
Posted by: maniza | Dec 29, 2009 11:04:22 AM
the essence of the article is rather that the karachiites (sindhis) are rather outspoken against the talibanisation than the punjabis/lahoris (who equally were suffering the last months) are, thus a geographical tilt for that matter rather than a political. he is mentioning that ANP has outspoken as well and they have been strongly anti-Taliban ever since, more than all the other parties, the worst being definitely PML-N as NFP notes.
also I doubt that giving much credit to altaf hussain for his blurbs from london against the taliban is doing him justice - he may condemn the taliban's violence, otherwise he is one of the instigators of street riots in the city.
Posted by: jakob | Dec 29, 2009 3:15:04 PM
A few questions:
If we were to take a look at recent master plans for urban development for Karachi as proposed by the current city government---would we find a bypass or an expressway that runs through the Boulton market-Karadar--Jinnah road corridor?
Was this plan being resisted by the residents of this area?
Was this plan being resisted by the shopkeepers and businesses in the area?
Was this plan being resisted by historical and cultural building preservation interest associations?
Am I wrong?
Posted by: maniza | Dec 30, 2009 11:44:17 AM
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