Muzaffarabad, Nov 25: A resolution of the Pakistan administered Kashmir cabinet declaring Lord Nazir Ahmed as ‘persona non grata’ has risked a row between United Kingdom’s first Muslim lifetime Peer and President Asif Ali Zardari as the former has vowed to “expose the designs” of the latter in the House of Lords.
 “Next week, I have a short debate in the House of Lords and I will let out the designs of President Asif Ali Zardari… I will expose the corruption of Presidency,” Lord Ahmed told this correspondent from London on Friday.
 He appeared to be incensed at the Thursday’s resolution of the PaK cabinet whereby he was declared as ‘persona non grata.’
 The PaK cabinet, while taking stock of alleged “negative activities” of Lord Ahmed and Dr Zulfiqar Mirza against democracy and democratic institutions in Pakistan, had also declared that it reserved the right to take legal action against the Mirpur born peer.
 According to sources in the PaK government, President Zardari was unhappy at Lord Ahmed’s liaison with former Sindh home minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza who has been lobbying in the UK against Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM). Last week, Lord Ahmed had also facilitated Dr Mirza’s address in the committee room of the House of Lords.
 Lord Ahmed told this correspondent that fatuous step had been taken against him because he had been talking about the activities of the MQM and its leader Altaf Hussain and wanted the killers of Dr Imran Farooq brought to justice.
 He claimed that only a day before the PaK cabinet meeting Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed had telephoned him, “begging in the name of God that I should not support Dr Mirza and that President Zardari had asked him to make this request to me.”
 “Interior Minister Rehman Malik and (PaK senior minister) Chaudhry Yasin had also conveyed similar messages to me because MQM leadership has been pressuring Mr Zardari to do something in this regard,” he said.
 “But now they have left no option for me… I will go all the way until the killers of Dr Imran are arrested and punished,” Lord Ahmed said, without mincing words.
 To a question, he said those who were afraid of exposure in this murder case wanted him to back off from it.
 He regretted that the PaK government’s step was bound to inflict an irreparable and permanent damage on Kashmir cause.
 “For the last 20 years, I have been campaigning against India and Israel for the right to self-determination of Kashmiri and Palestinian people. But what India and Israel failed to do directly, they have got it done through their agents in Karachi who used President Zardari and his handpicked lot in Muzaffarabad,” he said.
 “On the one hand Zardari government has declared India as the most favourite nation and on the other it has certified Lord Nazir Ahmed, who is chairman of the Kashmir Committee of the House of Lords, as an unwelcome person. This reflects their intentions vis-à-vis Kashmir cause.”
 He said: “In this issue, I dismiss the government in Muzaffarabad as a non-entity and leave it up to the Kashmiri people to handle it by themselves in the wake of its idiotic move.”

Lastupdate on : Fri, 25 Nov 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 26 Nov 2011 00:00:00 IST