Daily Times

At the time Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was tweeting the immortal words of General Hosh Mohammad Sheedi or Hoshu Sheedi, as he is commonly known in history, famously proclaimed at the Battle of Dabo while challenging the might of the British invading forces led by General Charles Napier, “Marsoon marsoon, Sindh na desoon” (will die, will die, but never surrender Sindh), Bilawal’s uncle, Sialkot-born new conqueror of Sindh Rehman Malik was offering Altaf Hussain’s MQM, as a piece of booty, a share in the Sindh government. General Sheedi died defending Sindh after proffering the British a tough resistance; Bilawal’s party’s ‘General’ Malik is willing to offer Sindh to new invaders on a platter.

Altaf Hussain demands a new province for Mohajirs. On a Sindhi e-mail list, one of the contributors posted: “The cat is finally out of the bag.” My response: “Was the cat ever in the bag?”

The Mohajir Qaumi Movement, or MQM, born from an unholy union between an ethnic students’ gang, All Pakistan Mohajir Students Organisation (APMSO), and Ziaul Haq’s martial law, was midwifed by the intelligence agencies. It was created as a reaction when Jamiat students, led by their Nazim, Hussain Haqqani (later and better) known for his alleged role in Memogate, threw Altaf Hussain out of Karachi University’s Pharmacy Department. The band, APMSO, was intended to terrorise Jamiat as well as non-Mohajir students in Karachi’s educational institutions. Therefore, when a need was felt by the autocratic regime to quash the Sindhi unrest against martial law and the judicial murder of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and quell the blackmailing of Karachi-based religious groups, the eyes of the beholders could not find a better candidate than the MQM.

Not only was an uneven field provided for the benefit of the nascent party in Karachi, an atmosphere was created to generate sympathy by arresting the leadership, and then widely advertising the arrests, arranging more print media space for the party leaders and their fiery slogans of an ethnic nature. The party was given a free hand in the urban areas of Sindh. This was to achieve the objective of undermining the PPP and religious groups in Karachi. Altaf’s infamous speech on ‘sell the television, sell the VCR, buy weapons’ (obviously to physically eliminate opponents) set the tone for the MQM’s future. There was also the burning of the Pakistani flag on Quaid-e-Azam’s mausoleum as well as the torture and kidnapping of Major Kaleem, which were turned a blind eye to.

For what seems like an eternity, the MQM, which later changed its name to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, was provided a free run. Hundreds of Punjabi, Pathan and non-conforming Urdu-speaking people in Karachi and Sindhis in the urban areas of Sindh, including Karachi and Hyderabad, were allowed to be mowed down at the altar of MQM ascendency by the powers that be. So much so that when the federal government initiated the Qilla Operation after 55 Sindhis were killed in Hyderabad, and whose names and pictures were published by the Sindhi media for the record, the military intervened on the orders of a parochial Aslam Beg and punished the police in front of the criminals for releasing all the miscreants apprehended during the operation. Benazir’s government was sacked afterwards, citing this operation as one of her crimes. Later, under a fellow ethnic president, Pervez Musharraf, the MQM held complete sway over Sindh, including the power to plunder Karachi and siphon off Sindh’s funds to London and elsewhere. Why and from whom is the then Mayor of Karachi, Mustafa Kamal, hiding in Dubai nowadays? Where else did the money discovered in Altaf’s flat and offices come from? A lot of people lost their lives on May 12, 2007, in Karachi and a number of lawyers were killed or burnt to death when they demonstrated in favour of Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry during the Musharraf reign. Who were the perpetrators of the crimes? Why is there no action against the criminals and their party so far? Election after election has been rigged in Karachi, documentary proof of which is available on social media but there is still no action! There are so many confessional statements available on record of MQM-bred terrorists, such as Ajmal Pahari but there is still no action! And, when a crackdown happens, the likes of Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan rush to Karachi to conciliate the criminals and terrorists!

And now, Mr Altaf Hussain demands a separate province for himself to rule. For as long as he had the whole of Sindh to plunder, he was the son of Sindh. Now that he has realised that in a democracy with less than 20 percent population of so-called Mohajirs, which includes some of the Urdu-speakers, Memons, Kachhis, Biharis, Bengalis, Burmese, etc, he cannot rule Karachi, let alone Sindh. He wants a fiefdom for himself. However, with a large number of Sindhis, Baloch, Pathans, Punjabis and Urdu-speaking Sindhis in the city, does he have enough of a majority in Karachi to separate it from the rest of Sindh? Undo the gerrymandering done during Musharraf’s misrule, watch the polling stations and see the results!

However, Altaf Hussain’s perorating is not my problem. Had anyone cared about his ranting, the division of India would have already been undone and all the Mohajirs taken back by India — remember, his famous speech in India “…division of India was a greater (sic), greatest blunder in the history of mankind. I request India to accept all the Mohajirs back”? Karachi would have been separated from Pakistan — one of his recent speeches “Karachi ko Pakistan se juda kardo” (separate Karachi from Pakistan) — and all his opponents in Karachi would have been butchered using the ‘teen talwar’ swords. Living in the US and knowing the ways of the west, I wonder how the British people allow their government to harbour a terrorist!

Having read the accounts recorded by Siddique Salik, Masood Mufti, Colonel Nadir Ali and Sarmila Bose’s Dead Reckoning (and rejoinders by Naeem Mohaiemen and Arnold Zeitlin), I can see that Altaf Hussain and his ingrate followers have not learned any lessons from history. The execution of Qadir Mollah in Bangladesh and the memory of December 16, 1971, should have served as a grim reminder to those who migrate to other lands and not only refuse to own them and assimilate but harm the land and its indigenous population. The migrants to East Pakistan also looked down upon the local populace as inferior, formed terrorist groups, helped kill millions and rape thousands, but what happened? When the tide turns, military backing and foreign support does not help. Then only the ones devoted to the soil — indigenous as well as immigrant — survive.

The writer is an independent commentator