The sultry sauten

This time MQM’s intent is so obvious, it’s not even funny

It has happened so many times – clichéd as it sounds – that one has lost count: the MQM acting like the younger sultry sauten and walking out in a huff to the maika.

One ‘counter’ tells me the average comes to around one walkout every eight months during the last five years it has pretended to be the PPP’s ally! This time the intent is so patently obvious that it is not even funny.

But like it or loath it, Muttahida is a unique political party whose political significance is not lost on anyone with an ambition to rule Sindh. The reason? It has firm control over Karachi, the country’s financial hub and one of the world’s pre-eminent metropolises.

This leverages MQM with a major say in matters governing the urban base of the province – even if it is out of power, which is rare. The biggest corollary which has come to define the party so-to-speak is its penchant for always gravitating to power regardless of which party it has to do business with.

It is pretty safe to suggest, on account of its history, that while other parties may come into and go out of power, MQM’s staying power is nearly a given. Not that it hasn’t had its share of pitfalls – to which I’ll return in a while – but mostly it has managed to hold its own thanks to shrewd politics by its supremo Altaf Hussain.

For the uninitiated, the mere suggestion that the party is governed from Edgware in North London – on telephone as it were – would seem like stretching the imagination but that’s just one of the peculiarities of Pakistan politics.

Altaf Hussain has successfully steered the show since 1992 when he left Karachi discreetly after a warrant was issued for his arrest in a murder case during a particularly violent period in the city’s history.

A list issued by the federal government in 2009, whose now-on now-off ally MQM has been, in fact, stated that Hussain was allegedly involved in 72 cases, including 31 for murder and 21 for attempted murder.

The list was issued after the Supreme Court had sought details from the government about the beneficiaries of the much despised National Reconciliation Ordinance.

Benefitting from hindsight, Musharraf now regrets the decision, which he had agreed to in return for an unhindered bid for re-election as president in the winter of 2007.

Altaf Hussain is also suspected by many of his opponents to have had a hand in the 2011 murder of Dr Imran Farooq, a former aide, who had fallen out with him and after giving up political life, settled in Britain.

However, none of these charges have ever dissuaded the MQM rank and file from virtually revering their self-exiled leader, who retains iron grip over the party from a spectacular physical distance.

Swathes of party loyalists listening in pin drop silence to his phone addresses are legion. And few of these demagogueries have ever been treated to consideration for time, space and weather. These always have the Rabita Committee religiously seated on the floor in almost servile manifestation.

Hussain commands the kind of following no other party in Pakistan does even though most other parties are similarly ‘cult’-driven. However, there is a discernible difference: most political scientists say the MQM is ruled by fear.

They allege the party is run Mafioso-style with the hierarchy swearing personal allegiance to one man, not the party, and deriving all their strength from street battle-hardened cadres known for their ‘heavy hand’. Hussain has often exhibited his raw power to bring the city down to its knees with so much as a strike call.

The MQM has rarely found its match in terms of street prowess and when it has, it has found its calling. However, it did face the brunt of a military operation, no less, in 1992, which considerably weakened the party’s stranglehold for some time. The clean-up operation was conducted to free Karachi from severe violence –unleashed, it is widely believed – by MQM activists.

However, the MQM which boycotted the 1993 and 1997 general elections under protest returned to the fold each time.

The party stands accused of compromising on principles to stay in power. It’s an allegation which has been strongly reinforced following several flip-flops in the current term alone, making it difficult for the regular folks to figure out if the MQM is really an ally of the Pakistan People’s Party’s coalition government at the Centre and Sindh or its opponent in an ally’s garb.

The pattern of getting in and storming out of cabinet over issues of particular interest to the party have exposed the MQM to allegations of being an opportunist party.

In one instance, it quit the provincial cabinet – but not the federal cabinet – apparently, over oil price hike (a federal subject), but returned once it settled some other issues with the PPP. The party made a song and dance of how the hike would hurt the people but subsequently, ignored a much higher increase in oil price!

More recently, it was in the news for questioning a court verdict for delimitation of constituencies and voter verification in Karachi. This prompted the MQM supremo to issue a strongly worded address that ridiculed a judge and accused the court of bias. A contempt notice followed from the Supreme Court with summons for Hussain.

The MQM chief was quick to see how that would have serious implications for his British passport and promptly apologized, even throwing himself at the mercy of the court. Fortunately, the chief justice let him off.

However, what took the cake recently was how Hussain first appeared to lead on Dr Tahirul Qadri, Pakistan’s latest wannabe saviour, with critical political support for his long march against the PPP government while staying in the ruling coalition but immediately pulled out once his demands for a say in the Sindh caretaker set-up were met.

Less said about the latest pullout just weeks ahead of the polls the better.

Clearly, no-one beats MQM when it comes to extracting one’s pound of flesh.

The writer is Editor, Pique Magazine. He can be reached at [email protected]