ALTAF HUSSAIN STRONGLY CONDEMNS THE MASS ARREST OF MQM AND JSQM LEADERS
PUNJABI ESTABLISHMENT UPSET BECAUSE OF UNITY AND CO-OPERATION BETWEEN THE PEOPLE OF SINDH
IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF ALL LEADERS AND WORKERS DEMANDED
London - 19 February 2000
Mr Altaf Hussain, Founder and Leader of MQM, has vehemently condemned the indiscriminate baton charge on the MQM and JSQM leaders by police while they were staging peaceful protest demonstration in front of the Bagh-e-Jinnah and Karachi Press Club. He termed the action of the Government as illegal, unconstitutional, undemocratic and flagrant violation of human rights.
In a statement issued here, Mr Hussain charged that on the instructions of the Punjabi Establishment, thousands of employees mostly Sindhis and Mohajirs had been forcibly dismissed from their jobs in Pakistan Steel Mills and many other Government and semi government organisations thus thousands of their dependants have been deprived of their livelihood. The MQM and JSQM had announced to hold protest demonstration in front of the Karachi Press Club but heavy contingent of police, paramilitary rangers and other law enforcement agencies created road blocks and surrounded the whole area and its adjacent lanes to stop the leaders and workers of MQM and JSQM from reaching the Karachi Press Club.
Mr Hussain said that those who managed to reach there were victims of indiscriminate baton charge. As a result, many participants sustained injuries and this was followed by large scale arrests of leaders and workers of both the organsisations. Those arrested included Senator Aftab Ahmed Sheikh, Deputy Convenor of MQM Co-ordination Committee, Senator Nasreen Jalil, Deputy Convenor MQM Co-ordination Committee, Hasan Musanna Alvi MNA, Zahid Qureshi MPA and other several dozen workers. The joint organisers of Jeay Sindh Quami Mahaz (JSQM) Zain Shah and Bashir Qureshi and other office bearers and workers of JSQM were also arrested.
Mr Altaf Hussain asked the government whether any peaceful, democratic protest demonstration within legal rights to draw the attention of the rulers against injustices, discriminations and other suppression of rights are crime or violation of law. He said the fact is that the Punjabi Establishment got upset following growing of the unity, co-operation, harmony and brotherhood between Sindhis and Mohajirs because the Sindhi residents are getting aware that the chauvinists and parochial Establishment policy of divide and rule would be rejected by the masses and their colonial policy of domination would be burried forever.
He asked, if peaceful demonstration is crime or illegal, then why actions are not initiated when Muslim Leaguers violently protest against trial of Nawaz Sharif in front of the court? Mr Hussain who always upheld the supremacy of judiciary, principles of democracy and adhered to the legal and constitutional framework of the country, delpored that when the subjugated people of Sindh launch peaceful democratic demonstration to protest against injustices and their exploitations by Punjabi chauvinist and parochial rulers, they baton charge, victimise and brutally beaten-up the peaceful demonstrators and dump them into prisons.
Mr Hussain demanded for the immediate release of Senator Aftab Ahmed Sheikh, Senator Nasree Jalil, Hasan Musanna Alvi, Zahid Qureshi, Zain Shah, Basheer Qureshi and all workers of teh MQM and JSQM. He demanded that all the Sindhi and Mohajir employees dismissed so far be immediately reinstated to their respective posts.