Claiming to be a victim of ‘media trial’ following the surfacing of a Joint Investigation (JIT) report, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) is demanding a probe into the murders of its workers on May 12, 2007.
“We know what crimes the MQM is being persecuted for. Unfortunately, they are patriotism and law-abidance. This ongoing character assassination, extrajudicial arrests, and media trials are only aimed at checking us from becoming the largest political party in Pakistan,” senior party leader Haider Abbas Rizvi told reporters yesterday.
Rizvi unleashed a counterblast live during an emergent midnight press conference held here by the MQM Coordination Committee at ‘Nine Zero’, the party’s headquarter in Karachi.
“We reject the JIT report as a malicious concoction. They are trying to pin Baldia Town factory fire on MQM through a media trial, which is bound to come to nothing as such conspiracies always had in the past,” Rizvi said adding, “The MQM will not knuckle under this strident blackjacking.”
The MQM leader also gave a broadside to Jamat-e-Islami for its alleged nexus with the extremist militant organizations in the country and overseas.
“Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), al Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and JI are thick as thieves. JI is directly hooked up with these militant groups. And for your information, Qaeda’s Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the principal architect of 9/11 attacks in US, was collared from the house of JI’s Rawalpindi Naib Nazima (senior female office bearer),” a fire breathing Rizvi said without mincing his words.
Turning his guns to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Rizvi alleged that cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan led party’s Islamabad sit-in had become notorious for eve teasing.
“There are scores of reported cases involving blatant harassment of women at the PTI’s Dharna (sit-in),” Rizvi claimed.