How long will the MQM act as if nothing is wrong with it?
The investigation in Imran Farooq’s murder has taken a turn that must be embarrassing for the MQM. When reporting on the murder in 2010, UK’s Guardian had quoted intelligence sources who suggested that a rift within the MQM and Farooq’s decision to join a new party might have led to his assassination. Farooq Sattar immediately refuted this in a letter to the newspaper. He flatly denied any internal division in the MQM and maintained that Farooq was “a highly respectable member who was on good terms with senior party officials”. Similarly, Altaf Hussain accused the “enemies of the MQM” being involved in the murder and said they would try to kill him as well. The response from MQM’s otherwise loquacious spokesman Wasey Jalil this time indicates lack of earlier confidence. He said that as the investigation was going on, the MQM would not make any public statement.
While many in Pakistan had forgotten Imran Farooq, Scotland Yard had continued to pursue the murder case doggedly. According to a report on Friday, the investigation agency has recovered 2,000 exhibits, collected 5,500 documents related to the case while it has also spoken to 3,200 people. The evidence has led Scotland Yard to conclude that the assassinated MQM leader who had amassed a large number of contacts on the Facebook two month before his death may have been building his independent political profile. The ace investigative agency has now issued a fresh appeal for information as they try to solve the murder case, promising a reward of £20,000 for anyone providing information leading to the identification, arrest, and prosecution of those responsible for Farooq’s murder. As Scotland Yard is widely known for maintaining high standards of professionalism, the results of the probe would be widely accepted in Pakistan and abroad.
The MQM has been accused in the past also of assassinations of some of its own dissenting leaders like Azeem Ahmed Tariq, Ahsan Tariq, Dr Nishat Malik and Khalid Bin Waleed. It was also accused of indulging in large scale violence in Karachi at the behest of Pervez Musharraf on May 12, 2007, leading to the killing of nearly 40 people. The party has routinely denied involvement in the incidents.
Many had hoped that after joining the PPP-led alliance the MQM would act as a mainstream party bidding farewell to a past full of accusations of assassination and bloodshed. Its participation in elections in AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan had strengthened the expectations. If the investigation by Scotland Yard was to confirm the suspicions that many have about its role in Farooq’s murder, this would alienate the party’s rank and file and inflict a lasting damage on its political standing.