Gimmicks won’t do this time

Questions demand answers

There is a lot of garbage in Karachi that needs cleansing. Some of it has been produced by none other than the MQM itself. The party introduced recourse to organised violence in pursuit of political goals for the first time in the country’s history. It created an armed gang to harass and take out opponents and party dissidents. It collected funds through extortion and China cutting. With Karachi Metropolitan Corporation under it, MQM got hundreds of party workers recruited as ghost employees to work on party assignments at public expense. Slowly, others in the city learnt the ropes, some even surpassing the MQM by perfecting the skills introduced by it. Karachi turned into battlefield where armed gangs fought turf wars. For years tortured bodies packed in gunny bags were a common sight in the city. The metropolis was divided into zones of influence with no-go-areas. The MQM held sway under Musharraf from 2002 to 2008 and as a coalition partner with PPP till 2013. By the time the PPP’s tenure was over Karachi had become ungovernable

During the ongoing Karachi operation scores of MQM’s desperadoes were arrested. Many more went underground or managed to sneak out of the country. The party is weakened and isolated. The arrival of former MQM mayor as party’s nemesis has put it in a quandary. It can no more take recourse to well-rehearsed tactics like shutter down strikes enforced through firing and recourse to arson. Having fallen on bad days it is forced to employ eye catching but peaceful tactics like the present move to cleanse the city of its garbage.

What the MQM is required to do is to give straight answers to the questions being asked by the dissidents whose number is gradually increasing. They have accused Altaf Hussain of financial corruption, links with RAW and doing politics on party workers dead bodies. They are all insiders and old timers. It won’t do to simply accuse them of doing a hatchet job at somebody’s behest.