Daily Times

LAHORE: Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) leader Raza Haroon has asked the government to take action against the politicians involved in anti-state activities, including Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain.

Addressing a press conference at the Lahore Press Club on Sunday along with PSP Punjab leaders Iftikhar Randhawa, Karamat Sheikh, Muzammil Bukhari, Shaukat Shah and Saeed Shah, he said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should resolve the Panama leaks issue in the parliament rather than addressing the nation on TV repeatedly. It is pertinent to mention here that those accompanying Haroon at the press conference are former office-bearers of the Punjab chapter of the MQM.

Criticising Sharif, Raza said the prime minister should have taken the parliament into confidence instead of delivering speeches on the state television. After taking the parliament into confidence, he said, the National Assembly speaker should have asked the prime minister to clarify the situation, as this was the best democratic solution to the problem.

Haroon said the government should have engaged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) instead of forming a “useless commission”. He said that these departments were supposed to be active in investigating the Panama leaks. He said the commission would ultimately turn to these departments for investigation.

The PSP leader said the MQM chief had been involved in anti-state activities; therefore, he should be punished, but the government was not active in this regard. He said, “There should be no sympathy for the people involved in activities, which could harm the country.”

To a question about the PSP manifesto, he said his party had not finalised its manifesto yet, but it was working on it. He said the PSP would provide the list of party leaders across Pakistan to the ECP.

Replying to a query about MQM leaders joining the PSP, Haroon said that anyone from Hussain’s party could join his party except Hussain and three other leaders of his party. He said the PSP would not entertain any member of the MQM Haqiqi. He said, “Anyone who is patriotic, law abiding and has a positive political background is welcome to the PSP.” He said the PSP believed that regional identities should be kept aside and the national identity should be promoted.

Earlier, Randhawa said that he would work to spread PSP’s message to every nook and corner of Punjab and people from every district would be joining the party soon.