The leader appears to be out of control
The London based MQM supremo Altaf Hussain addressing an annual convention of the party demanded separate province for Mohajirs and during his discourse also asked the party workers to stage protest demonstrations before UN, White House and NATO headquarters and ask them to send NATO troops to Karachi. He also characterised India as a coward country saying had it some honour it would not have let further bloodshed of Mohajirs on Pakistani soil. He also made disparaging remarks about the Army and security institutions. Earlier, the MQM Secretariat in London also sent a letter to the UN Secretary General alleging that its workers were being mistreated during the current security operation being conducted in Karachi and law enforcement agencies were unlawfully detaining their workers. It particularly mentions the raid on MQM headquarters on the night of June 17 and the arrest of a member of the Rabita Committee.
This is not the first time that Altaf has indulged in denigrating the state institutions, security establishment and the Rangers. He has been committing such indiscretions in the past and raising accusing fingers at them whenever criminals, target killers and extortionists having connection with the MQM have been arrested or raids conducted on Nine Zero to apprehend them. This phenomenon has however become more pronounced and more frequent since the initiation of the targeted operation in Karachi, especially after the JIT report on Baldia Town fire incident, the revelations made by the criminals arrested from and around Nine Zero in the recent raid by the Rangers, recovery of unlicensed weapons from the party headquarters and the confessions made by Saulat Mirza. Altaf had also reacted in the same manner after raid on Nine Zero, the remarks he had to withdraw after reaction of the Army and the Rabita Committee with a view to cool things down. He even resorted to condemning RAW’s nefarious activities in Pakistan.
This time however he has not restricted himself to castigating the institution of Army and the Rangers but has also sought military intervention by NATO forces in Karachi and taunted India for not protecting the Mohajirs in Pakistan. Whichever way one looks at the contents of his speech, the unmistakable inference drawn from it is that it has exposed the sinister designs of Altaf for the creation of a separate province for Mohajirs, a permeating perception among the people and security establishment of Pakistan since the inception of the MQM, strengthened and reinforced by the culture of the militancy promoted by the party.
His invitation for intervention by foreign forces in Pakistan and expecting India to protect Mohajirs is clearly tantamount to treason against the country and one finds it hard to take an issue with the remarks of the interior minister that it was a declaration of war against the country and that Altaf had crossed all the limits. Almost all the political forces in the country have severely condemned Altaf’s tirade against the state institutions and his act of treason, rightly so, and demanded appropriate action against him under the law of the land. The government decision, as disclosed by the interior minister during his press talk, to file a legal reference against him with the British government is also a right step under the circumstances.
MQM as a political entity is an irrefutable reality and no person in his right mind can think of depriving it of its political right to participate in the mainstream national politics or support any move to ban it. The interior minister was right on the money to say that the party was a patriotic political outfit and loyalty of the supporters of the MQM to Pakistan was beyond any reproach. He singled out MQM Chief and his London secretariat for the anti-Pakistan stance.
Many political analysts believe that the party cadres down the ladder and even the members of the Rabita Committee in Pakistan may not have been aware or taken into confidence regarding the real agenda and motives of the higher echelons of the party and are being used as pawns on the chessboard of a conspiracy to harm Pakistan, hatched by a deft manipulator like Altaf who has used the ethnic card effectively and used the unsuspecting Urdu speaking community in furthering his anti-Pakistan designs.
Altaf Hussain through his latest outburst has indeed pushed the MQM into a blind alley from where it would find very difficult to emerge unscathed. He has created a vortex of storms around him and his party, for which none else but only Altaf Hussain himself was responsible.
With his latest venom-spitting rhetoric he has probably left no avenue open for retracting from his indiscretions like in the past. It was, therefore, right time for MQM to revisit the contours of its political creed, come out of the denial mode regarding its patronage of militants and criminals involved in target killings, extortion and acts of terrorism which is an established fact as even the Supreme Court in its decision had held MQM as well as other parties responsible for these crimes, due to a turf war between them. The party cadres instead of blindly following the confrontational politics and anti-Pakistan stance of Altaf Hussain, need to give a serious thought to getting rid of the leaders who harbour sinister design against Pakistan.
The targeted operation in Karachi is being carried out indiscriminately by the Rangers only against the criminals irrespective of their political affiliations and not against a particular party as Altaf and his cohorts are desperately trying to portray. The Rangers have taken action against the criminal belonging to PPP, ANP, Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat and others as well. It is pertinent to point out that Rangers were called to undertake the targeted operation against criminal elements with the concurrence of all the political parties, including MQM in September 2013.
The PPP also expressed resentment over Rangers raids on Civic Centre and the Karachi Building Authority which prompted Zardari to vent his frustration through an outburst against the security agencies. However, sanity soon returned and Zardari had no other option than to retract. The tension between the Rangers and Sindh government was defused and Rangers have been given one year’s extension in their operational tenure.
The foregoing developments should leave no doubt about the fact that the federal government and the security establishment were absolutely determined to restore normalcy in Karachi and would not succumb to any pressure tactics by any political party out of political expediencies. All parties, including MQM, who are responsible for the obtaining situation in Karachi, will have to revisit their agendas and fully cooperate with the security establishment and the federal government in restoring peace in Karachi and purging the city of the criminal elements. They are left with no choice.