LAHORE: MQM chief Altaf Hussain has asked the people of Punjab to give a chance to his party and said it will not disappoint them as other parties have done.
“Let the people of Punjab bring us to power and we will meet their expectations. If we fail to deliver we will leave the government, I assure you,” he said in a telephonic address from London to a public meeting at the football ground of Qadhafi Stadium on Sunday.
Describing the meeting as a historic moment, Mr Hussain said: “Today Altaf Hussain and the MQM have come to Punjab. All should witness that there is no difference between Karachi and Lahore. No-one can now say that the MQM is a party only of Karachi.
“This is not a public meeting. In fact it is the beginning of a revolution. A peaceful revolution. I was stopped from coming to Punjab but now my party is here and all over the province,” he said.
He congratulated the office-bearers and workers of his party for making the Lahore show a “success”.
Supporters of the party from different parts of the province had started arriving at the venue before noon. Both sides of the Ferozpur Road from Kalma Chowk to the Muslim Town Morr became the parking lots for the participants’ vehicles.
The eleventh hour change of venue by the Punjab government, from the stadium’s main road to the football ground, hurt the MQM as a good number of participants preferred roaming around the stadium instead of going into the walled ground.
Some MQM office-bearers made speeches in Punjabi but the gathering was arranged on the party’s traditional pattern. Mr Hussain welcomed the participants with the traditional Punjabi slogan of “jee aiyan nuo”.
Although police personnel were deployed in and around the venue, MQM’s own security guards were in the forefront.
The PML-Q and Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s All Pakistan Muslim League sent their delegations — headed by Chaudhry Zaheeruddin and Fawad Chaudhry —to the show.
Talking about his party’s priorities after coming to power, Mr Hussain said certain changes would be made in the Constitution.
“Education up to matriculation will be compulsory and free. There will be a ban on child labour. Parliament will enact a law that will envisage punishment for parents who force their children to work. A uniform syllabus will be introduced for all types of schools. An independent foreign policy will be pursued. The systems of fuedalism and capitalism will be rooted out. Ill-gotten money will be recovered and deposited in the national exchequer.
“We will stop taking aid and loan from the IMF or World Bank and develop small business entrepreneurs and offer small loans. It will help reduce unemployment. We will also give an unemployment allowance. The MQM will give equal rights to the minorities.”
He said his party would address the grievances of south Punjab. “Referendum will be held for new provinces.”
He said honest people would be appointed in the accountability commission and judiciary would be made independent in the real sense.
He said his party would introduce a system that would help overcome the energy crisis.
The MQM chief said his party was in favour of a revolution that should come in a “democratic and peaceful” manner. “We do not want a bloody revolution.”
He said he had gone through a phase of poverty and was aware of the problems of the poor.
He condemned drone attacks and stressed that a “respectful” life could be ensured by making the country economically strong. He said the Kashmir issue would be resolved by an MQM government.
He said the Balochistan issue would be resolved by hugging the Baloch people, not at gunpoint. “Do not let Balochistan separate from Pakistan,” he pleaded.
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