Daily Times

It is not unusual for quarrelling parties to label each other as affiliated with foreign intelligence agencies in our country. What is unusual is for an SSP to hold a press conference and release dubious information regarding a sensitive, ongoing police investigation. On Thursday, the SSP of Sindh’s Malir district, Rao Anwar stated that two Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) members had confessed to not only being instructed by MQM leaders to carry out illegal operations and target killings but also to having been paid by Indian intelligence agency RAW for these activities and receiving training in India. Given the terse history that India and Pakistan share with each other, being accused of having an association with RAW is enough for someone to be labelled a traitor in Pakistan. There has never been any evidence of the MQM conspiring with RAW in anyway. If the police did obtain these confessions from the two MQM members in question, it is a distinct possibility that they were obtained through torture and duress, which are commonplace in Pakistan’s police stations. It was undoubtedly a grave mistake for SSP Anwar, who was later suspended for his statement, to make such inflammatory and unsubstantiated remarks to the general public. Anwar’s statement has also compromised the police’s investigation of MQM members for crimes that constitute a great deal of Karachi’s unrest, which the party is widely believed to be responsible for. Although the authorities involved in the investigation and the public want the MQM to be held accountable for their alleged crimes if proved guilty and to ensure transparency in the investigation process, Anwar’s allegations only serve to compromise the investigation that may eventually incriminate the MQM.

Anwar’s allegations immediately provoked severe responses from MQM leaders, who held a press conference of their own to deny the accusations and claim that suspension was not a strong enough punishment for the offending SSP. MQM leader Haider Abbas Rizvi claimed that the confessions were false and that the two suspects had been arrested weeks prior to the date of arrest given by the police. In light of the ongoing operation in Karachi, MQM leaders are complaining of being put through a “media trial”. However, Altaf Hussain and his party members have played no small part themselves in using the media to fight their battles against other political parties (such as the PTI in the recent past), the military and other institutions. Addressing his party workers at the Nine Zero headquarters after the SSP’s statement, Altaf Hussain accused the military and police of wrongly persecuting his party. While stating that the military considers his party members criminals, Altaf Husain asked, “Are there not criminals within your [army] ranks?” This statement drew the ire of the ISPR. The Director General ISPR, Major General Asim Bajwa said, “Such reference to Army or its leadership as reaction to arrest of criminals, who may have links with any political party, won’t be tolerated.” The Pakistani media that has been fighting for its freedom in recent years, is increasingly becoming a tool for power plays between politicians, the military and now the police. It does not seem to matter anymore whether the allegations that are made on mainstream and social media are supported by facts or unfounded; all that is needed to create a negative public perception about one’s enemies to make it easier to incriminate them is to provide enough fodder for rumours and conspiracy theories to flourish. The case of MQM is different however. The party is too powerful to be brought down by the allegations of an SSP and the police are too inefficient to carry out a conclusive investigation of MQM’s alleged crimes, which can bear the burden of proof in a trial. Yet the police should not undermine its efforts to investigate the MQM’s covert activities and bring them to light by resorting to such tactics and provoking a cycle of allegations and counter-allegations. *