Throwing the gauntlet

MQM vs the military

There is never a dull moment in Pakistani politics. The shenanigans of our politicians, covered ad nauseum by the ubiquitous 24/7 news channels, keeps the public perennially entertained.

The SSP (senior superintendent police) Malir, Rao Anwar, stirred up a hornets’ nest, accusing MQM of having links with Indian spy agency RAW at a press conference at his office. The junior police officer, punching much above his weight, paraded two alleged MQM thugs purported to have received training in India.

Of course, the MQM supremo Altaf Hussain and his minions could not have taken this lying down. Insinuations that the hatchet job against them has been done at the behest of the army have evoked a strong reaction from the ISPR (Inter Services Public Relations) chief, Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa.

MQM leader Haider Abbas Rizvi obliquely accused the military leadership of launching a renewed campaign against the outfit. According to him, a meeting was held with PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari, Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and a third person he refused to name, on Wednesday evening, in which it was decided to launch a fresh campaign against the MQM.

The insinuation was clear as on the day army chief General Raheel Sharif was visiting Karachi. It is another matter that the COAS visited the corps headquarters, and his activities were restricted to professional matters.

Admittedly, he reviewed the Karachi operation with the corps commander and DG Rangers. And General Sharif, during his brief stay in the mega polis, vowed to end reign of ‘mafias’ there.

But, as a military spokesman later clarified, neither the military chief, the corps commander nor any other khaki personnel was present in any meeting with the Sindh government leadership. In fact the army chief flew back to Islamabad early evening.

The military leadership is obviously not amused by Altaf Hussain’s diatribe against the army and its role in the ongoing Karachi operation. According to the DG ISPR the matter will be legally pursued. Altaf later apologised for his statement, but it was too late and the damage had been done.

The military leadership is obviously not amused by Altaf Hussain’s diatribe against the army and its role in the ongoing Karachi operation. According to the DG ISPR the matter will be legally pursued

Another twist in the tail is the errant SSP being transferred from Malir late Thursday night for “misusing his official powers”. The Sindh government, however, refrained from commenting upon the substance of the police official’s allegations.

Nor was the ostensibly out of line Malir SSP given the short end of the stick. He was merely transferred rather than suspended as per the standard norm in such cases. It remains a mystery what put up the SSP to throw the gauntlet at the MQM. He could not have been a lone wolf who went to town on MQM entirely on his own.

However, the substance of his allegations is serious enough to be thoroughly examined. After a thumping victory in NA 246, the party’s heartland, the MQM gave a deliberate spin that its policies have been vindicated and validated by the electorate. However, it is quite obvious that this is not the way the LEAs (law enforcing agencies) view matters.

Post 246 there has been an upsurge of high profile targeted killings in Karachi. Only on Friday morning a police official, along with his guards, was gunned down by unknown assailants. A professor of Karachi university mass communications department was also assassinated last Monday. Not necessarily the MQM, but any one of the various terrorist and criminal outfits operating in Karachi could be responsible.

The most tragic and high profile killing however was that of activist Sabeen Mahmud immediately after holding a meeting protesting missing persons in Balochistan. Obviously it will be unfair to blame the MQM for all these killings. For example, talking about missing persons in Balochistan is a bête noir for the omnipresent security sleuths.

Nonetheless, in the light of latest string of allegations against Altaf Hussain Inc, the MQM has a lot to answer for. Branding political opponents as Indian agents has been the favourite hobbyhorse of our omnipresent establishment. Nevertheless, merely claiming that it is a peace loving party is not enough. The MQM has yet to walk its talk.

Altaf Hussain, while denouncing allegations against the party he heads, has claimed that to maintain a relationship with India “is our moral and hereditary responsibility”. Fair enough, in the backdrop of the party’s core support being from those who migrated from India.

But the two thugs paraded before the media courtesy the transferred SSP claimed that they received training in India at the behest of the MQM leadership. Merely retorting that they were arrested much earlier does not absolve the party of being mixed up with high profile assassins.

However, Rao Anwar’s allegation that Altaf Hussain issues orders from London through his trusted lieutenants Mohammad Anwar and Nadeem Nusrat from Karachi is nothing new. Unfortunately, the party is run much less as a political outfit and more so on Altaf Hussain’s whims.

The manner in which members of the party’s so called Rabita Committee are treated by their leader and shuffled in humiliating manner smacks of mafia like tactics rather than that of a democratic dispensation.

It remains a mystery what put up the SSP to throw the gauntlet at the MQM. He could not have been a lone wolf who went to town on MQM entirely on his own

However, the SSP’s charge sheet has to be backed by his superiors in order to be of some consequence. If it is merely another chapter in propaganda warfare, it is bound to prove counter productive. The police officer in question wants MQM banned for being anti-state. This is serious business that in our checkered political history and has never proved to be productive.

The MQM has a vast criminal network that it is loath to dismantle. Nonetheless, on the flip side as a political outfit it holds sway in urban Sindh. It seems both Sindh and the federal governments implicitly acknowledge this fact. The federal government seems to have no intention of moving to ban it. The prime minister, on May12, has consequently invited MQM’s parliamentary leadership for a briefing on the Pak-China economic corridor.

However, it is up to the MQM to outgrow its ‘heads I win, tails you lose’, approach. It is high time the party chose between its political base and the criminal mafias operating under its wings.

Its leadership should desist from engaging in double speak of the worst kind. Altaf Hussain saying that ‘those who surrendered are patriots while those who fought for Pakistan are dubbed as traitors’, is completely out of line.

The military, despite having a lot of skeletons in its cupboard, has valiantly fought for Pakistan. Under General Raheel Sharif it has suffered very high casualties during the ongoing operation against terrorists with full backing of the federal government.

Hence, it is not a good development for the military and the MQM to be pitted against each other in propaganda warfare. A better course will be to take the MQM to court. And if the government has concrete evidence regarding the party having Indian links and being engaged in criminal activities, it should present it in the court.

However, the lead person in such a serious matter of far reaching consequences should be the federal government rather than SSP Malir.