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| India-Pakistan |
| MQM-MMA clash causes ruckus in NA |
| 2007-08-01 |
| The National Assembly on Tuesday witnessed rowdy scenes as Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) members exchanged harsh words after MQM Parliamentary Leader Dr Farooq Sattar blamed the religio-political grouping for using the dead of the Lal Masjid operation to serve its political ends. The rumpus later led the MMA MNAs to walk out of the House shouting loud slogans against the MQM. Dr Sattar first accused the religious parties especially Jamaat-e-Islami of opposing the creation of Pakistan and confronting Quaid-e-Azam, and then, blamed the MMA for pitching Lal Masjid clerics and students against the government and later doing politics over their dead bodies. The MMA is using the Lal Masjid issue to gather peopleÂ’s sympathies for the next elections, he alleged. But, he went on, this is no politics but hypocrisy and a failed bid on the MMAÂ’s part to conceal its governmentÂ’s poor governance in the Frontier. SattarÂ’s straight talking was enough to anger the MMA MNAs who got back at the MQM by levelling charges which were expunged from the proceedings by Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain for being un-parliamentary. Led by Liaquat Baloch, the MMA lawmakers later staged a walkout amidst high-pitched sloganeering against the MQM. Earlier, the house continued debating countryÂ’s overall security situation especially the Lal Masjid operation and subsequent suicide bombings in Islamabad and NWFP for the second consecutive day. Like the previous day, the MMA criticised Musharraf-Benazir Abu Dhabi meeting for striking a power-sharing deal. Without naming the PPP, Maulana Ghafoor Haidri and Hanif Abbasi said that those trying hard to do a deal with the military dictator were serving no national interest and rather, leading the country to more chaotic circumstances. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 The MQM has long supported the banning of Jamaat-i-Islami, the real power in the MMA. It was JI members of the Balochi and NWFP parliaments who held a minute of silence in their provincial assemblies, in honor of the murderer of CIA agents on American soil. The occasion: the killer had just been executed. However, the State Department continues to oppose grant of visas to MQM officials while handing them out like candy to MMA leaders. |
| Posted by: McZoid 2007-08-01 12:50 |