Baseless Accusations
By Burhanuddin Hasan
Karachi, Pakistan
One
feels frustrated when senior political leaders make
wild and senseless accusations against another political
party without providing any reasonable proof. Recently,
an 'all-parties peace conference' was convened in
Islamabad by the Jamaat-e-Islami for the sole purpose
of demanding the government to stop patronizing
the MQM and bring back Altaf Hussain to Pakistan
through Interpol.
The Jamaat-e-Islami chief, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, told
newsman that the conference expressed solidarity
with the people of Karachi, who are suffering at
the hands of "Muttahida terrorists and outlaws"
since the 2002 general elections. The APC also passed
a declaration which called for the dismissal of
the Sindh government, to put an end to terrorism
in educational institutions and 'no-go areas' in
Karachi. Qazi Hussain Ahmed claimed that over 25,000
youth, ulema, students and political leaders, intellectuals,
journalists and traders had been killed by the "Muttahida
terrorists". He said that in the last four
years, 654 people had fallen victim to their target
killings. He also accused the MQM of earning billions
in 'bhatta'.
How could the APC demand the federal government
that it stop patronizing the MQM, when it is fully
aware that MQM is a very valuable partner of the
government, which would fall if the MQM withdrew
its support? The same is the case in Sindh. Did
the APC not know that MQM members of the national
and Sindh assemblies have been duly elected by the
people of Karachi and Sindh, defeating both Jamaat-e-Islami
and PPP candidates? They are not sitting in the
assemblies due to the government's "patronage".
Only undemocratic and frustrated leaders could make
such senseless demands. In all fairness, the political
leaders who have made these accusations should have
also substantiated what they were alleging. Why
didn't the APC demand the extradition of Benazir
Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif as well? The MQM chief will
be justified in demanding an apology from Qazi Hussain
Ahmed and other participants of the APC, if they
fail to produce documentary proof supporting their
accusations.
The MQM was like a breath of fresh air when it emerged
in the wadera/pir-ridden politics of Sindh as a
symbol of working class political leadership. The
mohajirs were a homeless lot that wanted to take
part in the building of their new nation with a
revolutionary zeal. They were mostly middle-class
people who migrated from cities and small towns
to play their role in the service of the new homeland
for Muslims carved out of India by Muhammad Ali
Jinnah. They were the most landless and property-less
people when they crossed over to the province of
Sindh, where the local people generously received
them with open arms, like true 'ansars' and gave
them a sense of security and a place to live.
The mohajirs had no vested interests. In fact they
were the principal agents of change. They wanted
Pakistan to emerge as a model state for other Muslim
countries to follow. More than ninety percent of
the mohajirs were committed to eliminating the wadera-pir
combine to pull the nation out of its dark ages
and build for it a democratic and progressive future.
But the wily rulers who came from the fossilized
feudal system kept them suppressed and divided.
The city of Karachi, the birthplace of Quaid-i-Azam
and his designated capital for Pakistan, was the
bastion of working class power of the mohajirs.
It was built into a glittering metropolis with the
blood and sweat of these people who considered it
their home and a symbol of progress and prosperity.
This did not suit the vested interests of the first
military government which came into power in 1958
under General Ayub Khan. He ordered a new capital
to be built at a site near Rawalpindi to be comfortably
closer to the GHQ and his ancestral village of Rehana.
The capital was subsequently shifted from Karachi
to Islamabad in 1960. This was the first blow to
the mohajir community, followed by Ayub Khan's victory
in the rigged election in which he defeated Mohtarma
Fatima Jinnah.
This was the beginning of the persecution of mohajirs
by successive governments, which led to an awareness
in Urdu-speaking people to organize themselves as
a separate community in order to safeguard their
legitimate right of equal treatment as citizens
of Pakistan which was being systematically denied
to them through the quota system and other discriminatory
measures. They were being deprived of equal opportunities
in the vital areas of professional education and
jobs. They were all reasonably educated or they
were artisans, craftsman and skilled or non-skilled
workers. For them education and jobs were absolutely
necessary for their livelihood; they had no land
holdings and ancestral properties to depend upon.
It, therefore, become essential for their survival
that they should get organized as a separate entity
to fight the wadera-led governments in Sindh.
Luckily for them a young dynamic leader, Altaf Hussain,
emerged from Azizabad, a lower middle class locality
of Karachi. He took the city by storm. Through his
leadership and oratory he provided the mohajir community
a strong political platform which he named the Mohajir
Qaumi Movement (later changed to Muttahida Qaumi
Movement). Gradually, the mohajirs became a potent
political force demolishing icons of the PPP, the
Muslim League and the religious parties that were
well-entrenched in Karachi and parts of Sindh.
The governments of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif
took their revenge on the MQM through widespread
and indiscriminate persecution and murders of Mohajir
youths in the so-called "cleanup" operations
and military actions in Azizabad and Hyderabad.
Only the MQM, which is the party of professionals
and working people, with no jagirs, no haris and
no slaves can give the country a clean governance
based on a fair justice system, honesty, integrity
and austerity, which are the cornerstones of economic
prosperity and the moral and ethical values on which
Pakistan was founded. (The writer is a former director
of PTV)
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