Story Highlights
MQM’s Political Future
Karachi’s political scene took a dramatic turn when former mayor of Karachi and senior member of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Mustafa Kamal returned to the city and revealed his reasons to quit MQM. He held a press conference where he accused MQM Chief Altaf Hussain of causing unrest in city for decades, misguiding youngsters and turning them into target killers. He also announced formation of his new political party. Over the course of week, several senior members of MQM resigned from the party and announced association with Mustafa Kamal’s new political party.
Former Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Rabita Committee member Waseem Aftab and Iftikhar Alam, a sitting member of Sindh Assembly also joined Mustafa Kamal’s party. Speaking on the occasion, Waseem Aftab said that he realised that the corruption is not in this world, but within MQM’s ranks. Another member of provincial assembly and former Sindh minister Dr Sagheer Ahmed also announced his decision to join the newly formed party and announced his resignation from the provincial assembly seat, which he was elected to on an MQM ticket.
Meanwhile Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan invited Mustafa Kamal to appear before the inquiry team of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) which is investigating the allegations levelled by Sarfaraz Merchant against Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and its leadership.
Pak-India Relations
Officials from Pakistan and India have been in touch to restart stalled talks that were suspended after an attack on Indian air base. Indian Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh while answering a question in lower house of the Indian Parliament said that the two National Security Advisors have been in touch with each other regarding the follow-up by Pakistan on actionable information provided by India concerning the attack. V.K. Singh also accused that infiltrators from Pakistan perpetrated several terrorist attacks in India and Jammu and Kashmir. Meanwhile Pakistan has asked the Indian government to send all 24 witnesses of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack to Islamabad to appear before the anti-terrorism court (ATC). Last month, the ATC had directed the probe body to present all the 24 Indian witnesses in court to record their statements.
India had accused the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group for masterminding and executing the coordinated attacks on Mumbai’s landmarks in 2008 that left 160-plus people dead. Meanwhile Pakistan released 87 Indian fishermen held for violating its territorial waters and officials said a similar number would be freed later this month. Those released had been in jail for more than two and half years.
War Against Terror
In a recent attack at least 17 people including two police personnel were killed in a suicide blast in the premises of a court in Shabqadar area of Charsadda. The Jamatul Ahrar, a splinter group of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack. At least 30 people were also injured.
Meanwhile negotiation efforts between Afghan government and Afghan government are underway. In this regard Afghan President Ashraf Ghani renewed his dialogue offer to the Taliban and said the ‘Taliban is facing a major test – to choose whether they want peace or war’. While addressing the parliament Ghani also said that peace is in the interests of both Afghan government and the Taliban. His comments come a day after the Taliban refused to hold direct peace talks with the Afghan government, dealing a blow to international efforts to revive negotiations aimed at ending 14-year insurgency. The announcement, which comes as face-to-face talks were expected to start in Islamabad this week, stressed preconditions for dialogue including the departure of foreign troops from Afghanistan.
Meanwhile Taliban, in a statement, repeated their stance once again that until the occupation of foreign troops ends, until Taliban names are removed from international blacklists and until their detainees are released, talks will yield no results.
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