An interview with Barrister Saif: ‘Do you want mohajirs to fight for rights like Kashmiris?’

Transition from Altaf Hussain to Farooq Sattar ‘best thing’ for Pakistan and MQM

So those who believe in minus-Altaf may be overjoyed as Altaf Hussain has himself opted for minus-one formula. Now if anyone is sincere to Pakistan’s cause, they may benefit from the situation and welcome the saner voices to take over MQM’s reins. Those who want to keep Karachi burning may refuse to take the offer

Barrister Saif is considered one of the more agreeable of the many articulate advocates of MQM. But he’s more than your average, everyday politician. And he’s also a lot more than just a barrister.

Interestingly, he has three PhDs to his credit. One in law (of course) from University of Wales and two, strangely, in terrorism; one from Quaid e Azam University in anthropology (suicide terrorism) and the other from University of Halle, Germany, also in terrorism.

He’s a particularly precious resource for MQM right now, when they are making the subtle case for minus-one, and the ultimate, inevitable transition to life after Altaf.

And, true to form, he explains the situation in minute detail in an exclusive interview with DNA.

Question: Now that some time has passed, can you please explain what actually led to the strange outburst from Altaf Hussain?

Barrister Saif: Of course, one needs to understand the situation which led to an emotional outburst by MQM quaid Altaf Hussain. Since the media has highlighted a false and phony picture of the sequence of events, let me set the record straight. Everyone knows that Mutahidda workers have been targeted for the past many years and there seems to be no let up in target killings, arrests, torture and dumping of bodies of our workers.

We exhausted all possible options to get justice but to no avail. Finally, the party had decided to observe hunger strike outside the Karachi Press Club and most of the people who joined the camp were either mothers or relatives of those killed, arrested or tortured. This hunger strike went over weeks but no one was ready to take notice of the human misery and catastrophe.

At last, MQM Rabita Committee Karachi formed two committees to win political support to help resolve the issues related to the plight of MQM workers. A committee comprising three Sindh Assembly members — Khwaja Izharul Hassan, Syed Sardar Ahmed and Mohammad Hussain – was tasked to meet with the Sindh government officials and PPP’s leadership in Sindh while myself (Saif) and Farooq Sattar among others were tasked to lobby with the federal government and other heads of political parties.

Over the past few days, we met with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Information Minister Pervez Rashid, Speaker National Assembly, Chairman Senate, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Afrasiab Khattak, Hasil Bizenjo and many others and asked them to use their influence to help resolve the situation.

It was finally decided that the information minister would visit the hunger strike camp in Karachi on 21 July to make an announcement so the strike could end. However, due to some unavoidable reasons, the minister visited Karachi the following day and asked for a meeting at Punjab House where he could not give a positive response to the MQM leadership.

So when Altaf Hussain phoned the strike camp after the meeting, he was informed about the government’s response. The wailing women relatives of martyred and missing party workers also created a situation which led to a fiery speech, which was unnecessary and unacceptable.

As everyone knows, Altaf Hussain is an emotional and fiery speaker who has deep love for the party workers. MQM has disowned his remarks and even Altaf Hussain himself not only realised his mistake but also offered an apology which is commendable. I believe that the people of Pakistan and state institutions would also show grace, accept the apology and move on.

Q: What do you make of all the noise regarding banning MQM? Do you really think there is a chance the party would actually be banned?

BS: Banning MQM would destabilise Karachi’s peace. Do you want mohajirs to fight for their rights in the streets as the Kashmiris are doing?

Those calling for banning MQM must tell what they got from banning Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipahe Sahaba, Tehreek-e-Nifaze Fiqah Jafria, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, al Qaeda or Islamic State? All these outfits are working and operating with freedom after being proscribed with phony names. Do you want MQM to resurface with a new name? I wonder when would we get rid of the theatre of the absurd? I wonder when our institutions and those at the helm would learn lessons from history. We are trying to manage MQM without Altaf Hussain. Please don’t weaken us or, God forbid, we may have to face more bloodshed in Karachi – no one would be able to avert a replay of 1992.

Those who want to destabilise Karachi actually are dancing to the tunes of RAW and India wants to shift media focus from state terrorism in Indian Occupied Kashmir. Do you want that Indian and western media should be projecting the situation in Karachi rather than Kashmir?

For heaven’s sake, media should not go berserk and rather better sense needs to prevail. If Altaf Hussain has made a blunder, others should talk sense and not repeat such mistakes. Efforts to isolate MQM would only give birth to the rise of hardcore sectarian and linguistic outfits in Karachi. One must remember that when MQM was being weakened in the recent past, Lyari Gang War and TTP emerged stronger.

Those who support extreme actions against MQM are working for RAW. For us, we believe that there is a need to save the organisational structure of MQM. That would be the best service to the country and transition of power from Altaf Hussain to Dr Farooq Sattar is the best thing happening to Pakistan as well as MQM.

Farooq Sattar has not hijacked the party. He has taken over the reins in consultation with the Rabita Committee. Even Altaf Hussain has respected the decision taken in emergency, admitting the fact that he needs some treatment of trauma and stress and needs to stay away.

Q: What are the stakes for Karachi in this particular situation? And what, in your opinion, is the most rational way forward?

BS: Since Karachi is the country’s economic hub, peace in Karachi is very near and dear to our hearts. Being a major stakeholder, MQM has been striving to keep Karachi peaceful. MQM is the only political party which has never questioned the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and we fully support the game-changing initiative.

Keeping in view CPEC and other economic initiatives of the government, we want Karachi to remain peaceful and prosper. However, some naive elements want to destabilise Karachi’s peace.

The same elements are (mis)using the recent developments to help destabilise Karachi’s peace. Let me tell you that being the founder of MQM, Altaf Hussain has been very popular among mohajir people. So there have been remote chances of any minus-one or minus Altaf formula to work. Efforts have been made in the past too to throw Altaf Hussain out of Karachi’s politics but all such bids have backfired. Whether it was Karachi operations in ‘90s or the recent ones, all have failed.

Just take the recent polls in Karachi. From election of NA-246 to the local government polls, Karachi and Hyderabad have voted for Altaf. They don’t vote for Dr Farooq Sattar, Khalid Maqbool, Mustafa Kamal or anyone else. Like it or not, they only vote for Altaf Hussain and the recent elections have proved it.

So now when a transition of power is taking place in MQM, the state institutions, media and political forces must strengthen this transition process. But hawks may sabotage this transitional phase.

Let me tell you that over 15,000 MQM workers have been martyred but thousands are waiting in their wings to sacrifice their lives in the name of Altaf Hussain. So if someone wants to keep Karachi burning, they might make another try to maneuver a change in Karachi but all such tactics would fail.

If you can talk to the TTP, why not you talk to the most modern and secular political force of the country? History tells us that even after a war, dialogue is the ultimate option for peace. We again offer dialogue to state institutions for the sake of Karachi’s peace. The biggest national interest today is to avoid any possibility of bloodshed in Karachi. We have made the offer to avoid bloodshed and now concerned quarters need to respond and strengthen the efforts of Dr Farooq Sattar and company.

If saner voices among the MQM are not welcomed and this opportunity is wasted, then no one should blame MQM for any mishap, God forbid.

Q:

BS: As CPEC is making waves in the country, we want Karachi also to develop on modern lines. We want the people to have modern education, skilled labour and prosperity. This is why we have decided that Altaf Hussain would no more lead the party and rather Dr Farooq Sattar would be the leader. Even Altaf Hussain has respected the party’s decision keeping in view his health condition, etc.

So those who believe in minus-Altaf may be overjoyed as Altaf Hussain has himself opted for minus-one formula. Now if anyone is sincere to Pakistan’s cause, they may benefit from the situation and welcome the saner voices to take over MQM’s reins. Those who want to keep Karachi burning may refuse to take the offer.

But we, under the leadership of Dr Farooq Sattar, would carry on our efforts to serve the people who voted for us. We would also keep supporting the government’s development agenda in the center and in Sindh. The election of Wasim Akhtar and Arshad Vohra as mayor and deputy mayor Karachi is a huge success for the people of Karachi. Now we have made our contribution towards Karachi’s development, and the Sindh government needs to contribute towards the shared cause.

Could anyone ever imagine that the elected lawmakers of a political party would be arrested, humiliated and questioned like this? Despite the fact that MQM lawmakers have bagged unprecedented votes, they are being treated like criminals. Concerned quarters need to ponder if this is fair treatment towards elected representatives of the people of the most educated and most cultured population of the country.

Let’s take another example of unfair treatment meted out to MQM. While the Sindh government is demolishing and seizing MQM offices, declaring them “illegal encroachments”, would Chief Minister Sindh Dr Murad Shah also remove the encroachments of PPP? Can Murad Shah remove encroachment around Bilawal House? Never! He can’t even think of it. So we want fair and equal treatment. That’s all.