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KARACHI, Nov 5: Feroza Begum, MPA of the MQM, informed the Supreme Court bench here
on
Tuesday that her swearing-in ceremony as a minister in the government of Sindh was
under duress
and coercion and she had told the governor about it at the Governor House before she
took "a mock
oath".
She informed the Supreme Court bench, comprising Justice Saleem Akhtar, Justice
Mukhtar Ahmed
Junejo and Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, in her affidavit which she submitted through
her counsel, Fazle
Ghani and A. R. Qarni, that she and her son, Hafiz Osama Quadri, were taken to the
Gulbahar police
station where they were locked up by SHO Mohammad Aslam Chaudhry.
Feroza Begum submitted in her affidavit that she was taken in a police vehicle on
Sept 11 to the
Governor House where under coercion and duress she was asked to take oath.
She said she was not a willing party to all that drama that was staged and she had
told so to the
governor who adopted "an artificial silence". She told Kamal Azfar that she was
being forced to take
the oath or else the police had threatened to kill her, her son and other members of
the family.
Both the mother and the son were threatened by the SHO that they will be killed
along with other
members of the family unless Feroza Begum agreed to become part of the government of
Sindh,
leaving the MQM.
This meeting took place in the Gulbahar PS on Sept 9 last.
Hafiz Osama Quadri, a former MQM MPA, said in his affidavit filed through I. A.
Hashmi and Akhlaq
Ahmed Siddiqui that he was brutally tortured and humiliated in custody and a belt
was put around his
neck with a demand that his mother should agree to become a minister leaving the
MQM.
Wasim Akhtar, MQM MPA, who initiated the proceedings by filing his complaint, said
his earlier
statements submitted before the court on Oct 13 and 24 should become part of his
affidavit and also
the reply that he had given as a rejoinder to the statement made by Din Mohammad
Baloch, SSP,
Central.
He said the oath-taking was a part of a hatched-up conspiracy by the former prime
minister, Benazir
Bhutto, as she wanted to create a rift in MQM ranks and turn its members into
turncoats so that their
vote bank might be tainted.
All the three have blamed the then prime minister, Benazir Bhutto; governor Kamal
Azfar; chief
minister Abdullah Shah; SSP-Central Din Mohammad Baloch; SHO of Gulbahar Chaudhry M.
Aslam;
and SHO of Khwaja Ajmer Nagri police station Naeem Ahmed for violations of human
rights.
The affidavit of Wasim Akhtar was submitted through Sardar M. Ishaque and Qazi
Khalid Ali.
At the hearing, the court ordered the lawyers to submit on Wednesday how their
fundamental rights
were violated.
The hearing will continue on Wednesday also. The advocate general, Abdul Ghafoor Mangi, SSP Din Mohammad Baloch, MPA Wasim
Akhtar, MPA
Feroza Begum and Hafiz Osama Quadri were present in the courtroom. Osama Quadri and
Wasim
Akhtar were produced by the police, the latter from the house custody.
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Hassan Haider Naqvi