The antics of the foreign office

An empire afflicted with shrinking intelligence

The one paragraph statement of the foreign ministry in Islamabad in the matter of the raid on MQM office defies logic. In response to a question about the operation conducted by Scotland Yard on the business address of MQM on Edgware Road in London, the FO spokesperson said: “It would be premature and wrong to draw any conclusion about the raid. We are confident that the investigation would eventually help clear all misgivings about MQM which is not only a coalition partner, but also represents secular forces in the country”.

The FO interjection came after Scotland Yard confirmed the raid on the office of the MQM chief in connection with the ongoing investigation in the murder of Dr. Imran Farooq who was brutally eliminated when he was planning an independent political course and was in touch with some groups outside his own party which had angered its leadership.

Since the publication of the report about the raid, the MQM’s response has vacillated from absolute denial to a reluctant but angry acceptance. The latter came about when London’s Metropolitan Police formally confirmed the raid leaving no option with the party to keep denying it. The question is why this palpable uneasiness on the part of the MQM and its leadership? If a raid had been conducted, why did the party leaders of all hues and shades deny it so vociferously in the beginning? Also, why is it that they relentlessly construed it as part of a vicious campaign to malign the party and its political standing?

More importantly, what were the compulsions for the FO to come up with this unwarranted defence of a political party which is generally perceived as the architect of the culture of murder, extortion and kidnapping at a time when its top leadership is reportedly being investigated for the assassination of one of its own party members? If at all such a statement had to be issued to assuage the growing concerns of the MQM leadership in the wake of the ongoing criminal investigation, a more natural platform would have been the PPP. The pressure exerted on the FO and the latter’s spineless capitulation to issue the dictated statement is a small reflection of the malaise that afflicts the executive, the FO being no exception. Given the grandiose ambitions of the lady with a million purses who rules an empire afflicted with shrinking intelligence, this is only a small measure of the sordid compromises which the FO would be willing to make without the winking of an eye!

But, it is not just the overriding ambition of the lady that we should be concerned about. It is what she has reduced the FO to during her tenure that deserves an honest comment. Was it for the FO to get involved in an embarrassing effort to retrieve the MQM from the political mess that it is gradually sinking into? Who is not aware of the countless murder and kidnapping cases registered across the length and breadth of Karachi against all its top leaders – the ones who lord over things sitting in Pakistan and the one who sits in London masterminding a vast mafia of criminal gangsters operating wantonly to maintain their ill-gotten power in Karachi and some other parts of the Sindh province? Was it appropriate for the FO to dub this band as a ‘secular force’ apparently in a bid to appeal to the liberal West to be lenient on the MQM in the midst of virtual talibanisation of the country? More, should this argument be construed as a mitigating component to conclude the investigation in the matter of the murder of Dr. Farooq? And should this argument also be treated as a reason to let go off the leader of the party if he and his cohorts are indeed implicated in the heinous murder?

Why did the FO get into all this? Whose instructions was it following? Who pushed the foreign minister to get embroiled in a matter that did not warrant a comment in the first place, or was she aware at all of what was happening back at the base? Was it the presidency calling the shots as usual using its multifarious avenues of influence to make the FO do something unprecedented in the annals of diplomacy? Is it the pressure of the elections showing in a desperate bid to keep the coalition intact, or is it a smart move with hindsight that MQM and its leadership may be ultimately indicted?

These and countless other thoughts come to mind when one tries to decipher the gross manner in which various offices and institutions are being used to help the government keep the necessary numbers intact. But, an overriding perception is gradually taking shape that the MQM may have had its day. Whether its fall comes about through the unlikely event of the don in London being implicated in the murder of Dr. Farooq, or contradictions within the party ranks lead to an implosion, the long-term future looks dicey for the MQM and its leadership.

In spite of the political shenanigans of the PPP leadership, it would be the happiest among the MQM partners at this juncture. Having seen its hold on Sindh diluted considerably owing to the gains of the MQM particularly in the urban parts of the province, it makes for a wonderful strategy for the PPP to do everything to assuage its concerns in the open but play the Brutus behind closed doors to expedite the political demise of a party that was originally conceived by a dictator to eat into its vote bank. The strategy becomes even more meaningful given the challenges that the PPP is facing at the hands of the growing power of the nationalist parties of the province on the one hand and the visible gains that PML-N has made on the other. The only underside is that the advantage that the PPP may be planning to secure may actually fall in the lap of forces that are even more inimical to its domination of the province.

The writer is a political analyst. He can be reached at [email protected]