Pakistan: Top Shia party, Sunni Ittehad Council form ‘non-political alliance’

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) Expressing its dissatisfaction over the ongoing ‘targeted operations’ in the city that continued to face bloodshed and violence, the MWM demanded that an operation be launched across the city to purge Karachi of illegal weapons and outlawed terrorists outfits.While addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club along with Maulana Ahmed Iqbal, Allama Abdullah Mutehri and Syed Ali Hussain Naqvi, MWM’s Nasir Abbas Shirazi said what type operation it was that terrorists were targeting people, Shias in particular, with more intensity. On Sunday two Shia youths were killed near the Quaid-i-Azam mausoleum, indicating that the operation was misdirected, he said.Regarding the move to start dialogue with Taliban, he said: “We think that we are the party most affected by terrorism. We and the relatives and heirs of the martyrs believe that we must be made part of the decision-making process of any anti-terrorism policy of the government.”He announced the MWM’s all out support to the Voice of Martyrs that was founded to condemn terrorists and express solidarity with the heirs of victims.Referring to the newly formed association with the Sunni Ittehad Council, Alliance of Patriots, the MWM leader said it would lay the foundation of the change that would introduce, encourage and embolden positive forces and real leadership.Mr Shirazi reiterated the demand for an impartial judicial commission, headed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, to probe the Ashura tragedy of Rawalpindi because the “present commission and fact-finding committee were partial and under the influence of biased high-profile figures”.He said it was a deep-rooted plot and pre-planned attack on peaceful mourners on Ashura in Rawalpindi. Foreign-backed terrorists were hired to strengthen those who wanted that Ashura and Eid Miladun Nabi (PBUH) processions should be banned, he added.“Eight mosques and Imambargahs and many shops were burnt. Copies of the Quran were set on fire but there was not a single report in the media and nor a single word of sympathy from the government for the victims of those incidents; it proved the discriminatory attitude of the government and media,” he said.He called for resignation of Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali and Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah over their failure to maintain law and order during Muharram and in particular on the day of Ashura. If they wouldn’t resign they must be sacked from the office of ministers, he added.About the local bodies polls, he said the MWM would play its full role in the local bodies elections after seat adjustments with like-minded political parties by fielding its candidates in Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, Gilgit and Baltistan./149