My reaction to Altaf Hussain’s marathon press conference is one of sympathy. Sympathy that I felt not for the beloved leader but for thousands of his otherwise rational followers, who have now been entrusted with the Herculean task of defending gems from his speech, one that featured verses from the Quran as well as songs from Bollywood.
What makes things worse for these MQM supporters is their obsession to demand a saintly reverence for their leader. Consider the case when Imran Khan, the leader of PTI, chastised his supporters for raising the slogan “Zardari Kutta”, calling it an “insult to dogs”. The response of the PPP to that low blow stands in a sharp contrast to the killing spree that followed Zulfiqar Mirza’s outburst in July this year, when he declared Altaf Hussain to be a criminal. This extreme reaction is not something that can be simply pinned on emotional party workers, as even the party leadership is known for flaring up on talk shows. The former mayor of Karachi, Mustafa Kamal, went to the extent of threatening PML(N)’s Zaeem Qadri with physical consequences, for his audacity to criticise the Quaid of MQM. But with his recent vitriol against every major political party in Pakistan, the Quaid-e-Tehreek, has managed to invoke a lot of “irreverence” from his detractors; as his loosely built arguments and eccentric theatrics are proving to be easy pickings for them.
Take the map for instance; that plans to carve up Pakistan to make room for “Free Balochistan” and Greater Afghanistan. The map itself is not from a classified CIA or MI5 file but from an article written by an ex-soldier and a novelist named Ralph Peters. Mr Peters imagined a hypothetical map for this region, with borders redrawn in a way that would resolve conflicts and bring peace. Pakistan is not the only country that lost territory in that map, Israel did as well. The requirement now for maintaining Altaf Bhai’s reverence is to not only prove Mr Peters as the mastermind behind United States’ global agenda, but also to justify the existence of a secret US plan that will result in the loss of Israeli territory to Jordan and Lebanon.
Also consider the duration of the event; the MQM has always denied allegations that it intimidates the media through violence, an allegation that was part of Zulfiqar Mirza’s charge sheet against them. But, the duration of this press conference lays credence to that claim. If one assumes the media houses to be rational businesses, then it is indeed mind boggling to see their channels sacrifice millions in ad revenues to ensure an uninterrupted broadcast. It would indeed be ridiculous to accredit MQM’s “PR” capacity for causing this irrational business decision. The only rational explanation for such a decision is that the reward for these sacrificed revenues came in terms of the security of life and property for these channel owners.
The forced sacking of Nusrat Javaid for pointing out this particular “hostage taking” of Pakistan’s media, further corroborates the allegation that MQM uses violence against the media. It would indeed be very difficult to prove that these channels that are operating in an industry that is marred by low profitability were suddenly willing to sacrifice precious ad revenues en masse.
While the leadership of MQM insists that it does not want to address the allegations from Zulfiqar Mirza, it is very obvious that these three press conferences were done to do exactly that. If Mirza’s allegations of extortion, treason, and mass murder were frivolous then what exactly was the need for these three events? One would assume that for each of these conferences the MQM used the best that it had in terms of evidence. But by deflecting the pointed accusations of Mr Mirza and by focusing on completely irrelevant issues, MQM has only strengthened the case that was made against it.
The strengthening of Mirza’s case only magnifies the severity of his allegations, and with the leadership of MQM simply failing in making a credible case; it is time for MQM’s supporters to start questioning their leadership. Under no circumstances, should the construction of flyovers and upgradation of drainage systems be reasons enough to justify the massacre of thousands, because caring about Karachi should mean valuing its people and not just its infrastructure.
The writer is an Islamabad-based development economist. He blogs at iopyne.wordpress.com
Thank you Imran Khan (not to be confused with Imran Khan of PTI) for your cool analysis. I am very pleaed to discern a definitive positive change in the thinking of the media and journalist and anchorpersons. They are saying on TV channels and writing in colums what they think according to their conscience. MQM should realise that Dr Zulfikar Mirza has broken the taboo. Imagine Zulfi roaring at Altaf Hussain the mafiosi Don and called him without mincing words as criminal, extortionist, murderer and money launderer etc etc. Could someone imgine this happening only two months ago.
i have the experiencing of living in gulistan e johar karachi and saw myself the guys of mqm sectro riding on motor bike with pistols and abusing shopkeepers and ordering them to shut their shops.a complete closure during strike in karachi means that majority of them were forced to shut down the shops.
This is not something new and that is why MQM strikes are worthy of being called Strikes. If you are new in the city, stock at least for a week if they give a call. sometimes it prolongs and you even crave for Piyaz Tamatar and Anday.
It is quite obvious that crowds shown during the theatrical and histrionc speeches are stage managed and the crowds are forced out of their houses and their ID's and driving license confiscated by the workers of MQM and made to clap and laugh if the supremo cuts a joke no matter how ridiculous it could be. At the end of Supremo's telephone now video talk the leaders would ask the members of 'free media' to tell them how big the crowd was. Realistically speaking journalists would say two thous ands and this would make the members of ready-mde rabita committee furious and the journalistswould be ordered to wrtie in their report that there were at least one hundred thousand in the audience. Such are strong arm tactics that we have to put up with this.
Look what happened to senior anchorperson and journalist Nusrat Javeed of Bolta Pakistan. Such is the fear instilled in the hearts and minds of the bosses of these TV channels that they acted in complete obedience to these so called well educated leaders belonging to the middle class.
I agree with you whole heartedly that construction of few ill planned and rickety flyovers and underpasses under the mayorship of Mustafa Kamal be reasons to justify the massacre of thousands. The other point is siphoning off enormous amounts of money from the funds allocated for these flyovers. As these thugs are, they would have overpriced invoices to keep the record clean. Besides, the MQM is allergic to the idea of auditing the accounts of CDGK, KWSB and Hyderabad.
Zulfikar Mirza has unnerved Altaf Hussain. He had no guts to respond to Zulfi's allegations and instead showed utter disrespect for the holy book of Isalm by hurling it from one side of his skull to the other. Moreover he recited verses from Quran absolutely wrong thereby rendering its meaning on the contrary to what Almighty Allah meant us to believe. Insha Allah he will pay heavy price for this in this world and after…
mr Imran, i really appreciate your views. These are facts about MQM but they are not only to be blamed for their crimes. Zia, Musharraf, and Zardari the the corrupt and Gilani the shameless are equally to be blamed. You are lucky to be in Islamabad otherwise in karachi even kamran khan degraded himself shamelessly to MQM.
as a newspaper you are not willing to publish truth. well done mr imran.
Thank you Imran Khan (not to be confused with Imran Khan of PTI) for your cool analysis. I am very pleaed to discern a definitive positive change in the thinking of the media and journalist and anchorpersons. They are saying on TV channels and writing in colums what they think according to their conscience. MQM should realise that Dr Zulfikar Mirza has broken the taboo. Imagine Zulfi roaring at Altaf Hussain the mafiosi Don and called him without mincing words as criminal, extortionist, murderer and money launderer etc etc. Could someone imgine this happening only two months ago.Thank you Imran Khan (not to be confused with Imran Khan of PTI) for your cool analysis. I am very pleaed to discern a definitive positive change in the thinking of the media and journalist and anchorpersons. They are saying on TV channels and writing in colums what they think according to their conscience. MQM should realise that Dr Zulfikar Mirza has broken the taboo. Imagine Zulfi roaring at Altaf Hussain the mafiosi Don and called him without mincing words as criminal, extortionist, murderer and money launderer etc etc. Could someone imgine this happening only two months ago.
Renouncing Old Gods isn't that easy. Will take time. They have no substance to defend. Just the usual rant.
Has some one noticed the part of speech in which Altaf BHAI said, " I MAY NOT BE ALLOWED TO SPEAK TO U NEXT TIME". Who allowed him to speak this time? Did he ever needed a permission to speak to the public? what does this mean? Is he under detention or arrest or what? can U clarify Imran??
@Abdul Rehman. May be I will be able to explain what he meant by uttering above words. You will be aware that the Scotland Yard has made a headway in the murder case of Imran Farooq. There has also been arrests of three suspects from the Karachi airport who landed from a flight from Colombo on the tip of of British intelligence, These suspects are allegedly MQM operatives. Besides, the Scotland Yard discovered some documents from murdered Imran Farooq's house which relate to the murder of Hakeem Saeed who is widely believed to have been murdered by MQM.
All these stupendous developments are unnerving the brave leader of MQM. While Zulfi was roaring he sudeenly disappeared. One reason may be lack of courage to face Zulfi and the other reason may be that the Scotland Yard was apparently interrogating him.
That is the reason he gave an indication that he may not be allowed to speak next time and I sincerely hope this will happen.
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