The recent anti-Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) tirades of former Sindh home minister/former Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) stalwart Dr Zulfiqar Ali Mirza have created a rumpus in the political scenario of the country.
Is Mirza going to become the don of Karachi in the future? Is he planning to corner the MQM to develop his party’s strong grip over affairs in the metropolitan? Is he doing it with the tacit support of the intelligence agencies and the PPP to eliminate the MQM from the city and to raise the dwindling graph of popularity of his party? Will he succeed in giving a tit-for-tat response to the MQM in terms of violence and killings, and reducing the influence of the MQM in the metropolis? These are the questions that are striking the minds of the people from the day Mirza held the MQM responsible for all the sins in the city.
On the one hand, Mirza says he would struggle hard and put his life at stake to ensure peace in Karachi, the financial capital of Pakistan; on the other hand, he appears to be on a warpath with the MQM. A couple of days ago, Mirza had raised a stunning slogan ‘five for one’ in his press briefing in Badin, and he said that five men of the MQM would be killed in reaction to killing of one man of the PPP by the MQM.
Political observers and analysts are claiming that the former home minister is planning to develop a strong force of militants by gathering ‘diehards’ from the Haqiqi faction of the MQM, the Sunni Tehreek, the Baloch of Lyari, the Pathans and the Sindhis.
In other words, Mirza is going to gather all the anti-MQM elements under his umbrella with the aim to create a force to develop deterrence for the MQM, and to give a befitting and rapid response in terms of clashes, violence and killings in the metropolitan.
As the home minister, Mirza had already collected extensive information about the activities of the MQM men, and their jobs, locations and criminal records that he could use for his ‘personal agenda’. Analysts are of the opinion that clashes – if occurred – between the ‘activists’ of the MQM and the force of Mirza in the days to come would not be one-sided matches.
Mirza firmly believes that a very strong force (in his leadership) in Karachi and interior Sindh could ‘tame’ the MQM to ensure peace in this mega city of Pakistan, to end the culture of extortion of money, and to put an end to frequent waves of bloodshed in the metropolis.
Mirza had openly blamed the MQM for all sins in the city, but he did not mention the black deeds of the anti-MQM factions – the Haqiqi party, the Sunni Tehreek, the Lyari group, the People’s Amn Committee and the criminal elements among the Pashtuns – who often become part and parcel of violence, bloodshed, extortion of money and kidnappings. It is understood that with the blessings of the intelligence agencies, the PPP and the anti-MQM elements, Mirza would be in a position to trim the size, political/ethnic stature and influence of the MQM in Karachi as long as the PPP is in government.
But what would happen to the force and theory of Mirza in case the MQM regains an unbridled power in the future just like the one it had enjoyed during the eight-year regime of Pervez Musharraf?
This aspect must also be kept in mind while creating a force of militants who, at any stage, could emerge as another headache for Karachi and a big issue for law and order in the city as well as in the province in the future.
At present, it is essential that all the political and ethnic parties sit together to bury their hatchets, and disown and discourage criminal elements in their ranks; and the ongoing operation should be fair and it must focus on all the strongholds of political and ethnic parties, especially those who are infamous for fanning bloodshed, violence and unrest in Karachi.
Exempting one party from the operation for temporary political gains would not ensure a long-term peace in this financial hub of Pakistan.