End militant wings of all political parties
In the backdrop of firing on the personnel of Rangers, the MQM offices were raided and a number of its workers arrested by the agency, which as usual invoked a severe reaction by the party in the form of sit-ins at ten venues in Karachi. The MQM leader Altaf Hussain with his familiar vacillating statements and antics called for immediate release of the detainees and playing the card of victimisation even urged intervention by the new army leadership. This has almost been the pattern whenever criminals belonging to MQM have been hauled up by the law enforcing agencies since the launch of the targeted operation in Karachi by the PML-N government, ostensibly with the consensus of all the political parties. The life in Karachi almost came to a halt when an MQM activist Kazim Abbas Rizvi involved in the murder of Advocate Niamat Ali Randhawa was arrested and Indian weapons were recovered from the party office.
In view of the proven fact that MQM, PPP and ANP — who had their militant wings involved in target killings, extortions and land grabbing and have been fighting turf war against each other — had endorsed the new initiative publicly but they tried to protect themselves by using their political clout to sabotage the operation.
It is beyond any reproach to say that Karachi used to be a thriving industrial capital of Pakistan providing livelihood to millions of people belonging to multiple cultural entities from all over the country, living in peace and harmony with each other. The scenario changed with the emergence of All Pakistan Muhajir Students Organisation (APMSO) founded by Altaf Hussain in 1978 and its subsequent conversion into Muhajir Qaumi Movement (MQM) in 1984 and later into Muttahida Qaumi Movement in 1997. The Organisation which was ostensibly formed as a counterweight to the Sindhi nationalists soon developed into a formidable political force as its baptism on linguistic basis had great appeal for the Urdu speaking community living in Karachi and Hyderabad. Since late ’80s till the recent elections it has been winning majority of the National Assembly seats in Karachi and Hyderabad and has remained coalition partner of the federal governments. In Sindh also it has emerged as the second largest party and formed coalition governments with both PPP and PML-N.
The MQM inebriated by its success, appeal and predominance among the Urdu speaking areas of the province, instead of focusing purely on its political agenda tried to lord over and subdue other communities living in Karachi by terrorising and brutalising them through its militant wing. The MQM militants have allegedly been involved in criminal economy of drugs, extortion and land grabbing to raise funds for the party, though the party has always denied these allegations.
It was involved in a deadly fight with a break away faction called MQM Haqiqi and Sindhi nationalists after the 1990 elections and Karachi was introduced to a new phenomenon of target killings and gunny bags with dead bodies. More than 1,800 people lost their lives in the mayhem. In the years to come, federal governments switched between forming alliance with MQM and fighting against it to establish greater control over Karachi. Operation clean-up launched by PML-N government in June 1992 to end terrorism and seizing arms was perceived by the MQM as an attempt to eliminate the party and thus resulted in another round of widespread political violence. It was during this upheaval that Altaf Hussain fled the country.
The militancy and acts of terrorism by the militant wing of the MQM are not only known to the people of Pakistan but have also been corroborated by representatives of foreign countries based in Pakistan and international organisations. The Amnesty International, US State Department and others accused MQM and MQM Haqiqi of summary killings, torture and abuse of human rights in the mid 1990s. The Federal Court of Canada, in 2001, declared MQM as a terrorist entity and barred the party members to visit or stay in the country, considering it a serious security threat to Canada. It also accused MQM of harassing opponents and using crime as means to raise money for the party. In 2009 the US Consul General in Karachi Stephen Fakan in a cable sent to his government pointed out that MQM had a militant wing named Good Friends having a strength of 35,000 thousand, out of which 10,000 were active. Who can forget the mayhem in Karachi on 12 July, 2007, when 50 people were killed and hundreds injured.
The continued killings of the opponents and members of other communities living in Karachi led to the creation of militant wings in other parties designed to checkmate the dominance of MQM militants in the crime trade and land grabbing. The current situation in Karachi is a sequel to this ongoing tussle between armed wings of MQM, PPP and ANP further exacerbated by the sectarian killings and terrorist acts of TTP. The violence in Karachi could not be controlled during the last five years due to the fact that those who had to do it were themselves part of the problem.
The initiative by the PML-N government to launch the targeted operation is a first serious and imaginative move to quell lawlessness in Karachi and it must continue without blinking and succumbing to political expediencies. It has already shown some good results. There is however a political dimension to the problem also which needs to be tackled through political initiatives. MQM, whether one likes it or not, has become a potent political force, a fact which needs to be accepted. It must be given its due in political power which can be ensured by holding immediate local body elections in Karachi within the meaning of the article 140 A of the constitution and the party allowed to manage the affairs of the city if it wins the elections. That would surely help improve law and order situation and frequent disruption of civic life in Karachi. MQM also needs to take a break from its militant past, cooperate with the law enforcing agencies and try to seek redressal of its grievances through legal channels instead of resorting to blackmailing antics and trying to scuttle the success of the operation. This transformation is direly needed not only for the future of MQM and Karachi but also for Pakistan.
The writer takes Rangers statement – that they were fired upon – as gospel, without stopping to think for a moment that knowing the consequences of such an act, why would MQM indulge in such stupidity. He seems to have forgotten the Jinnahpur conspiracy that MQM was accused of hatching and which later proved to be a fabrication. And killing of fourteen people and wounding of over eighty at Dr. Tahirul Qadri's secretariat gives a clear picture of how law enforcers behave in our country. And by the way, Altaf Hussain's brother, his nephew and a large number of MQM workers have been killed extra-judicially.
And these are not just MQM but Shahi Syed of ANP and Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) also complain about, and lodge protests against brutality and extra-judicial killings by law enforcers. Anticipating such incidents, it was decided right at the start of the operation to form a committee of neutral persons of repute to oversee the operation but this decision remained unimplemented.
And the writer blames APMSO, the precursor of MQM for starting violence in Karachi, forcing other parties that he names as ANP and PPP also of organizing militant wings involved in target killings, extortions, land grabbing and fighting turf war against each other He has completely ignored the role played by Ayub Khan and his son who started violence to punish the people of Karachi for supporting Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah against Ayub Khan and Karachi never recovered from that. APMSO / MQM were formed basically to protect the Urdu-speaking people against the growing excesses of Punjabi-Pakhtun ganging up against Urdu-speaking people. The writer remembers killings on 12 July, 2007 in Karachi, which deserve to be condemned but says not a word about killing of Urdu-speaking people in Hyderabad, Qasbah colony and Aligarh colony in Orangi Town, Karachi, and in other incidents including the pervious operations against MQM.
The writer claims that most of the time, MQM has been part of the Sindh government but ignores the fact that because of greater number of seats allocated to Sindh – based on 1998 population census – and having simple majority in the Assembly, PPP routinely bypasses MQM in important matters. Helplessness of MQM Assembly members can be judged by the fact that PPP has not held local bodies elections through which MQM could play an important role in Karachi and Hyderabad, despite the fact that PPP has already diluted the Sindh Local Government Act by divesting it of nearly all powers. And as part of the federal government, its negligible presence prevented MQM from playing any significant role so much so that military operation against dacoits in interior Sindh was diverted by Gen. Asif Nawaz against MQM while it was a partner of PML-N, and which operation Nawaz Sharif is on record for expressing regrets for.
As for some Western countries accusing MQM of militancy, perhaps the writer has not noticed that they call Pakistan a terrorists and British Prime Minister even accused Pakistan of exporting terrorism while all of them treat Israel as a democratic state, worthy of their unqualified support, and that clearly shows their approach.
Karachi
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