“Pakistan military, henchmen robbing the country”, says MQM supremo Altaf Hussain

London [UK], September 3 (ANI): Hitting out at the Pakistan military establishment, Muttahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM) supremo Altaf Hussain has accused them of “robbing the country” by levying ‘draconian taxes’.
He said that the people of Pakistan are being robbed by the two per cent elite of the country under the aegis of Pakistan's military top brasses.
“The puppet previous and incumbent interim set-up has levied multiple taxes of which certain taxes are even without titles such as further and extra taxes. These draconian taxes are collected from the people of the country through electricity bills. The military, paramilitary Rangers, Police and court have connived in this daylight robbery,” he said.
Altaf Hussain lambasted the “looters consortium” under the aegis of the military establishment, and called the highly-taxed electricity bills a “bomb of mass destruction”.
“The military, however, has a 75-year record of massacring the citizens of Pakistan,” he remarked.
“The military establishment has through puppets made it difficult for the poor to survive, while the powerful civil and military elite of the country are living a life of luxury. The time is approaching fast when the people will be compelled to react violently,” he added.
Hussain made these remarks during his address on Saturday, which was broadcast live on social media forums.
He said that the people are committing suicide and are selling their household commodities just to pay the electricity bills.
“The military establishment and the puppets are using power distribution companies known as DISCOs and especially supporting the K-Electric in Karachi as the military establishment has stationed the paramilitary Rangers to protect the K-Electric from the people on protest,” Hussain said.
He added, “Simultaneously, the puppet caretaker government has hiked the POL prices to an unbearable extent. Thus, the military junta has sandwiched the people in highly-taxed electricity tariffs and the POL prices. In addition, the most corrupt previous government of PMLN-PPP-JUIF known as PDM managed to rob the people by creating an artificial crisis of sugar. The prices of sugar per kilogram have been skyrocketing from PKR 85 to 185. The puppet finance minister fled from the country with the backing of the military establishment after his tenure was over,” he further added.
The MQM founder said that the electricity bills include income tax, flood tax, fuel adjustment charges, meter charges, sales tax, general sales tax, TV fee, Radio fee, disaster tax, further tax, extra tax and others.
“The Per Capita income in the country is less than 250 dollars and hence the people are unable to pay highly-taxed bills for military establishment. A person whose monthly income is 20000 or 25000 rupees has been forced to pay his electricity bill of rupees 40000. The people are forced to keep hungry and stop sending kids to school,” he said.
He further demanded that the facility of free vehicles, free petrol and free electricity to the two per cent elite should be removed immediately.
“All the illegal charges should be removed from the electricity bills and only the price of the units of electricity consumed should be charged from the consumers…the government suddenly increased the prices of petrol and diesel by PKR 22 per litre and dropped another bomb of massive destruction on the people who are already in the mill of inflation,” he said.
Hussain further alleged that despite these economic hardships, the powerful elite are provided with free petrol to the tune of rupees 220 billion PKR.
“The IMF's managing director, Cristalina Georgiou, stated that they have urged Pakistan to tax the rich people who are making money and give concessions to the poor who are most needed. However, the government is taxing the poor while subsidising the rich,” he added.
Hussain said, “During the Shehbaz Sharif government, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced in the National Assembly that no tax will be levied on agriculture and the real estate sector, thereby exempting the big landowners and real estate tycoons”.
He further accused the Shehbaz Sharif and his cabinet of “stabbing” the nation in the back and said that the people will never forgive them.
The MQM supremo said that a dual system is enforced in the country, where the people of the country are deprived of basic facilities like water and electricity, while in all the major cities of Pakistan, army cantonment areas, military housing societies, DHAs, and navy and air force are established where the uninterrupted supply of utilities are fully ensured at the cost of poor men's tax money.
“Pakistan needs a revolution like the French revolution, the two per cent elite landlords and capitalists should be hanged on the square so that other people can learn a lesson. Pakistan is the only country whose army does agriculture, real estate and all kinds of businesses,” he said,
He said that Karachi is a “gold mine for the military establishment”, and that's why the army, rangers, agencies and elites are all colluding in Karachi and the grassroots party MQM, which talks about the rights here, is being crushed by the military.
Hussain alleged that thousands of MQM activists were killed “extra-judicially” during the state operation that has been going on for the past several years. He said that the military had assassinated his elder brother Nasir Hussain and nephew Arif Hussain.
“Imran Khan always opposed me and said a lot against me, but when there was a crackdown on him and his party, I raised my voice in his support. It is wrong to put all the blame for the events of May 9 on Khan. Just like what was done against the MQM,” he added,
Hussain further alleged that his party leaders were handpicked to dessert him, and the splinter groups were created by the military establishment
They were pardoned despite the fact that they were already expelled from MQM on charges of criminal activities. However, the military establishment failed to break the nerves of his loyalists, he said.
“The military establishment is repeating the same draconian tactic to break the PTI. Those who are unable to bear the atrocities are parting ways with Khan under military pressure. Those who dare to reject the military's dictation are in prisons,” Hussain added,
The MQM supremo said that Khan's loyalists that he will keep supporting them.
“Those leaders of PML-N who used to say that Khan cannot spend even a day in jail should be ashamed because Khan is serving time while those leaders of PML-N disappeared as soon as the government ended,” he further said.
Notably, the Pakistan tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman is serving a sentence in the Attock Jail after being convicted in multiple cases.
Pakistan district and sessions court on August 5, sentenced Imran Khan to three years in prison in the Toshakhana case i.e. for illegally selling state gifts and disqualified him from politics for a period of five years, local media reported. He was lodged in Attock Jail in the Punjab province in the country.
The PTI Chairman was arrested from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore soon after being convicted in the Toshakhana case. The court also imposed a fine of Pakistani Rupees (PKR) 100,000 on Imran Khan, Geo News reported.
Although, the Islamabad High Court suspended Imran Khan’s sentence in the Toshakhana case, the former PM is still behind bars after a special court ordered jail authorities to keep Khan behind bars in connection with cipher case. (ANI)