A bitter row has erupted between cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan and ruling Pakistan government's ally Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) over Khan's threat to prosecute MQM chief Altaf Hussain for instigating violence on May 12 in Karachi that led to the killing of more than 40 people.
Khan heading the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (social justice) party has squarely blamed the MQM for the May 12 violence and said that he would soon file a case against Hussain in British courts "for the killing of innocent people in Karachi" and seek his extradition to Pakistan.
MQM, which broadly represents the Urdu speaking migrants from India, who were settled in the country's business hub Karachi after the bitter Partition of the subcontinent in 1947, yesterday hit back by organising a big demonstration against the former cricketer, charging him of running a slander campaign against Hussain on behalf of his ally Jamat-i-Islami.
President Pervez Musharraf, during his visit to Karachi on Friday, warned Opposition parties for attempting to give him an ethnic colour by branding him to be a "Urdu speaking" as his family migrated from India after the Partition.
Musharraf said he is Pakistani first and the country remained on top of his priorities.
MQM parliamentarian Hyder Abbas Rizvi told media persons at the demonstration organised in front of Karachi Press Club yesterday that unless Khan stopped his "slander campaign" against MQM, his party would hold demonstrations whenever he visits Karachi and against whosoever invites him.
Musharraf said he is Pakistani first and the country remained on top of his priorities.
MQM parliamentarian Hyder Abbas Rizvi told media persons at the demonstration organised in front of Karachi Press Club yesterday that unless Khan stopped his "slander campaign" against MQM, his party would hold demonstrations whenever he visits Karachi and against whosoever invites him.