People being gunned down by the score, a sustained reign of violence and terror, tortured bodies found in gunny sacks: this is all so reminiscent of the turmoil and bloodbath of the 1990s. Then too the MQM’s supremacy in Karachi was challenged as the PPP government tried to rein in the party’s excesses. And the current wave of violence certainly is not “the job of wives and girl friends”, as Rehman ‘the Dim-Witted’ Malik (what have we done to deserve him as our interior minister and fire-fighter extraordinaire?) had averred not so long ago after a particularly vicious killing spree that had lasted for some days, with no respite from the law enforcers under the PPP provincial government’s command.
In the midst of this latest extended bout of violence, the ante was ratcheted up in no small measure by the MQM’s London-based supremo Altaf Hussain by asking the people of Karachi to stock up on essentials for one month. This was as irresponsible and as incendiary a statement as ever was made by the sage of London.
Though in his subsequent sermon, Altaf was in slightly calmer mode, yet he made the controversial and quite needless remark whether Sonia Gandhi would accept “the 50 million Mohajirs” back in India. Perhaps, his reduced fire-breathing was a reaction to the comments of the British Foreign Office Minister for South Asia, Alistair Burt, in which the latter expressed his concern at the continuing violence and resultant loss of life in Karachi, warning against inflammatory statements by political leaders, and briefed the British Deputy High Commissioner in Karachi to convey this message clearly to all concerned, as well as talking personally with the Sindh governor on telephone.
Perhaps the MQM Quaid, comfortably ensconced in his London lair as a proud subject of Her Majesty, got the message that he after all could not issue such fatwas with gay abandon.
(Should there not be a law that disallows leaders in voluntary self-exile, who have adopted foreign citizenships to boot, to lead political parties in this country? There are examples, some of them exceptionally honourable, of iconic leaders who led successful movements from exile, but Altaf Hussain somehow does not fall in that category. Unlike most Pakistani political leaders who either opted for or were forced into exile, Altaf was not even willing to return in a milieu most benign and facilitating when the “MQM’s General” held sway for eight long years. That means he is not returning any time soon, yet holding Karachi hostage to his whims through the use of Graham Bell’s invention).
Even so he would not let go. He recounted the history, quoting chapter and verse, going back to the 1960s, in his characteristic manner, painting the Mohajirs as victims of the subcontinent’s partition who have known nothing but suffering ever since – not accepted by the native Sindhis, unlike Punjab where the Punjabi migrants from the eastern side of the border were easily assimilated.
This harping upon the grievances may get him some nods of approval from the incredibly patient, almost saintly, audiences with such across the board funereal looks, but it is a warped version. Not only did the Punjabis of East Punjab find integration in the Punjab, but Mohajirs from farther east too.
The case of Karachi is a peculiar one: it has been given an increasingly ethnic colour by the MQM leadership because that is its raison d’etre. And that is why the very mention of Haqiqi, the other claimant of being the representative of the same ethnic vote, raises such hackles.
And that is why the gimmick of ‘being treated as second class citizens’ is resorted to so often. But this simply will not wash any more, nor will all the references to the special sacrifices made in 1947.
But peaceful politics and playing it by the book is something not in the MQM’s ethos for other political forces are in the fray, and they are not averse to using the same cruel ploys.
As the whole smorgasbord of the forces is arrayed against it (the PPP, the ANP, the Haqiqi and the Jamaat-i-Islami), the MQM leadership, particularly Big Brother, is getting hot and restless under the collar. And it is with foreboding that it has launched this latest reign of terror, for it knows that this virtually is the last resort. Once the gerrymandering of the Musharraf era is undone and the electoral rolls are cleaned up, the political landscape of the megapolis is going to change.
The writer is Sports and Magazines Editor, Pakistan Today.