KARACHI: MQM chief Altaf Hussain on Sunday urged the army to take action against the Taliban saying the party activists would be ready to sacrifice their lives to save the Quaid’s Pakistan from extremist forces.
Addressing a large public gathering on phone from London at the Jinnah Ground near Nine Zero, the MQM leader once again condemned the attack on child activist Malala Yusafzai and her two classmates, Shazia and Kainat.
With his speech being broadcast to 36 other locations across the country, Altaf said that Malala was a beacon of light, who aspired to acquire knowledge, which the Prophet (SAW) had made obligatory on all Muslim men and women. He warned that extremist forces were “hell bent on extinguishing beacons of light like Malala Yusafzai” and their attempt was contrary to the teachings of Islam. He also offered the title of ‘Daughter of Pakistan’ to Malala Yusafzai.
“The time has come to decide the fate of Pakistan. We have to choose between the Quaid’s Pakistan and the Taliban’s Pakistan,” he said. Calling the Taliban “inhuman, illiterate and Stone Age people”, Altaf said that civil society, media professionals and lawyers needed to join hands to rid Pakistani society of these elements.
He praised those religious scholars who unequivocally condemned the actions of the Taliban and had the moral courage to call them “barbaric.” As for those religious scholars who were reluctant to condemn the acts of the Taliban, Altaf said these people were, in fact, “selling the names of Allah and His Prophet Muhammad (SAW) for petty worldly gains”.