Karachi: In a historic women's rally on Sunday, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which represents mainly urban Pakistanis, warned that the country might lose the southwestern Balochistan province if justice was not done.
Altaf Hussain, the MQM's founding leader who lives in exile in London, delivered a telephonic address to the unprecedented women's gathering. He said Balochistan was on the verge of secession from Pakistan because the Baloch had been denied their rights and there had been cases of genocide against them.
"I have been pointing it out for long — that the [state] operation must stop," Hussain said. "How can you persuade them to be patriots when they see the tortured bodies of their family members?"
Last week a resolution was tabled in the US Congress supporting the insurgency in Balochistan and advocating their right of self-determination.
"Now it is too late; big, bold and bitter decisions must be taken to give them all their just rights," Hussain advised the authorities. "If their wounds are not healed we might, God forbid, lose Balochistan."
Earlier, Hussain said he was familiar with the miseries of the Baloch as he lost his own brother and a nephew in state persecution as well as more than 15,000 of his party workers. While expressing solidarity with the families of missing people in the country and particularly in Balochistan, he reminded the authorities that several of his party's workers were also missing.
"Who knows if they are alive or were killed but I can understand that pain very well," he said.
