Sunday, March 7, 1999

PM urged not to doubt Mohajirs' integrity

From Salahuddin Haider
Our Karachi Correspondent
MQM leader Altaf Hussain asked the Pakistan government yesterday to stop doubting the integrity of the Mohajirs and open the Khokhrapar land route for them to travel to India and meet their relatives. He issued a belated but detailed reaction sought on the telephone from London on the Pakistani prime minister's meeting in Lahore last month with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

"Nawaz Sharif had acted more as a Punjabi than a Pakistani prime minister," the exiled leader said deploring the holding of such an important conference in Lahore instead of the nation's capital of Islamabad. Secondly, the hosts should have flown their guests from India to the tomb of the Quaid-e-Azam in Karachi. That this was not done was indeed regrettable and amounted to obvious disrespect for the father of the nation, Altaf said adding Nawaz Sharif had failed to project the Pakistani point of view during the talks.

The MQM leader asked why the Khokhrapar route to India had not yet been opened when a bus service from Delhi to Lahore has begun. "The bulk of the traffic to India is from Sindh and yet the travel facilities for those living in Sindh and wanting to meet their divided families in India had been denied to them," he said.