Published: October 15, 2012
The MQM is the only party with presence in both parliament and the Sindh Assembly that
has a clear stance on the question of confronting terrorism by taking on its indisputable exponent, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). This is remarkable because the three ‘liberal’ parties — the PPP, the MQM and the ANP — are directly in the crosshairs of the terrorists and will be hard put to conduct their electoral campaigns in the coming days in preparation for the 2013 general elections.
After the Malala incident, the army says any attack into the stronghold of the terrorists in North Waziristan will depend on the government in power. It has been reported that the army is well deployed in North Waziristan and ready with effective intelligence and proper firepower to attack the agency. But are politicians ready? MQM chief Altaf Hussain addressed a big rally in Karachi on October 14 and asked the army to go to North Waziristan with “his party’s support”. He significantly challenged clerical parties for their inchoate stance and taxed the army with the observation that after consuming 80 per cent of the country’s resources, it was duty-bound to take on the terrorists. He went on to say that if the army did not act after the Malala incident, “the nation may be left with no option but to seek international help”. He also chided the judiciary for not reacting to the extremism and violence of the lawyers’ community, which “showered the killer of governor Salmaan Taseer, Mumtaz Qadri, with petals”.