Khursheed Shah opposes ban on MQM

SAYS OPPOSITION TO JOINTLY PROTEST IF NA REJECTS BILL ON PANAMA LEAKS PROBE

Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Khursheed Shah has cautioned the government and establishment not to ban the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) as it would deteriorate situation in the Sindh province. Talking to media persons at his chamber in the Parliament House on Thursday, the opposition leader said it would not be in the interest of the country to ban the MQM. He said everyone knew who was in touch with whom, and warned that whoever shook hands with MQM founder Altaf Hussain would be considered the enemy of Pakistan. He said everything would become clear about the MQM in the next six months. Khursheed Shah claimed that there was no harm to people in Sindh when it came to the implementation of quota system. He said the PPP government was following the merit and all the recruitments were also being made on merit. The PPP leader also said if the National Assembly rejected the opposition’s bill on Panama Leaks investigation, it would be assumed that the government was not serious in having an investigation into the scandal. He further said that if the bill was rejected the combined opposition would devise a strategy for a joint protest. Shah said the government had given the impression that by not increasing the prices of petroleum products in the last five months, it had done a great favour to the people. He said it was the other way round as the OGRA had recommended reduction in POL prices but the government instead of giving relief to the people imposed new taxes. He said the government amassed a tax of Rs 5268 billion in 2015-16 on the head of petroleum. He said the price of petrol would come down to Rs 42 if the taxes which were prevalent during the tenure of the PPP were enforced. He further said that the PML-N which had called the petroleum levy as jagga (forced) tax during the PPP government was itself collecting ten per cent levy on POL. The opposition leader also rejected the government’s claim of improvement in economy, saying if the economic situation had improved, then why the government was not giving relief to the people.