MQM doing politics of principles: Rizvi

HOUSTON: MQM's Deputy Parliamentary leader in National Assembly Haider Abbas Rizvi has said that sometimes a decision has to be made to minimize business losses and termed the current alliance with the government as 'a similar contract'.

"Sometimes you have to make decisions that you may not like in order to minimize your business losses. The current alliance with the government is a similar contract," Rizvi said while addressing the 16th annual convention of the MQM USA North America in Houston, Texas.

He said in the light of ground realities, sometimes you have to take the bitter pills.

The MQM leader said it is true that currently we have Zardari, Shareefs, Khans and sardar’s rule in the country; however this is how democracy works.

He said in 2008 election which was the most transparent election after one in 1970, people voted for People’s party, PMLN, PMLQ and ANP while MQM has only 7% share in total votes.

"None of MQM workers voted for these families but we decided to stay in government according to our fair share, in order for MQM to not go into isolation. We have seen the result of isolation in the form of 15,000 martyrs and more than 2,800 missing people and where hundreds were forced to stay in exile."

Rizvi said MQM was doing politics by the principles and selected the options that wee in the best interest of the people.

He said that 9 elections are held in Pakistan since 1988 where more than 100 MNAs and more than 250 MPAs from MQM were elected where mostly are lost in the past but not a single one can be pointed out who has betrayed his people and pocketed from his position.

He said you may not remember but I remind you that when we ended our alliance with PPP, the passage of “Kati Pahari” was spitting fire and more than 100 of our workers were killed in just 4 days. Police did not reach there for 4 days until the 5th day when Rangers moved in and situation came back to normal.

"Do you think there are white flags fluttering all along Kati Pahari and its all peace there?" he said, adding violence gets unleashed with an on and off switch there.

He said foreign hidden hands are another element in this. He said we are forced into a situation where we are forced to go into alliance with PPP.