Daily Times

Dr. Farooq Sattar, Mustafa Kamal and most of the Muttahida’s current and former parliamentarians havesuccessfully served as the political face of the now defunct Altaf Hussain-led MQM. Most of these men and women perhaps had never indulged in the mafia-style activities of Altaf’s MQM like bhattha collection and other unlawful acts generally associated with the Party and its leader. Nevertheless, it is well neigh impossible to believe that they were not aware of the strong-arm tactics that their leader was using to keep a tight grip on the Party, silence internal dissent and eliminate opposition, sometimes even physically.They also perhaps were very well aware of the faces who had manned this strong-arm wing of Altaf’s MQM.

Still the fact that they continued to serve Altaf’s Mafioso style politics for such a long time implied that they were either morally too weak to even record their protest or perhaps they were mentally convinced that that was the only way to protect and preserve the Party’s ideology which was based on an inbuilt sun-set notion of Mohajir nation.

The so-called MQM-Pakistan that had emerged out of the unofficially banned Altaf’s MQM is currently presenting a picture of total confusion in the absence of its underpinning, the strong-arm wing most of whose members are said to be either on the run or are in the custody of the Rangers. Many are said to have gone underground on the orders of Altaf who is said to be saving them for the rainy day.

Dr. Farooq Sattar, a second fiddle to Altaf Hussain all through his political career had automatically inherited the mantle of the residual MQM’s leadership. But he clearly lacked the qualities required in a leader trying to pick up the pieces of a Party in total disarray, especially one which had lived by the sword since its emergence. So, failing to stand the heat anymore he abruptly left the kitchen last Thursday when his decision to form an electoral alliance with Pakistan Sarzameen Party (PSP) of Mustafa Kamal was met with open internal rebellion.This perhaps could be the final curtain for MQM Pakistan.

The other second or perhaps the third fiddle of Altaf who is trying to raise the PSP from the carcass of a dead MQM is likely to fare no better politically. On the face of it Kamal is being helped by ‘you-know-who’ to poach the electables from the disintegrating MQM-Pakistan in the same way Musharraf had poached Patriots from the PPPP after the 2002 general elections to enable his hand-picked Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali to win the office of the leader of the House by just one vote.

The Sindh urban voter is too clever to have missed spotting the helping hand behind the success of Mustafa Kamal in quickly bagging so many of former MQM stalwarts; and being characteristically anti-establishment, this voter is likely to deliver a surprise in the next elections

The Sindh urban voter is too clever to have missed spotting the helping hand behind the success of Kamal in quickly bagging so many of former MQM stalwarts; and being characteristically anti-establishment this voter is likely to deliver a surprise in the next elections whenever they are held. So far the PSP has not tested its political strength by contesting any of the by -elections held since it was formed. On the other hand the MQM-Pakistan did contest these by-polls but generally lost to the PPP.

But if not the MQM-Pakistan or the PSP, who is going to win urban Sindh come next general elections?

The PMLN has no political presence of any significance in urban Sindh. The PPP is still being regarded as the proverbial step-mother by the Karachi and Hyderabad voters. And Zardari by making Bilawal spend more time in Punjab and Islamabad rather than in Karachi is perhaps closing the window that the Party chairman could have used to try to at least remove the unfavourable image of the PPP from the minds of voters of Sindh cities.

The PTI, on the other hand, which polled the second largest number of votes in urban Sindh after the MQM in the 2013 elections, has held a number of huge public meetings even in rural Sindh lately. But Imran’s focus appears to be more on the Punjab and rightly so because the party which wins Punjab wins Pakistan.

The disintegration process that has set in the MQM did offer the PTI a God-sent opportunity but the party seems to have missed winning over some of the still indecisive Muttahida electables.

Going by the way Altaf plays his political cards and also going by the brain-washed urban Sindh voters who perhaps still believe Altaf to be their real saviour one finds it impossible to rule out the possibility of Altaf exploiting the emerging political vacuum in Sindh cities by putting up independent candidates in the next general elections as he did when MQM was still known as Mohajir Quail Movement and was not allowed to contest polls under the relevant electoral laws that prevented parties based on ethnic ideology to participate in elections. These candidates without any seeming links with Altar could contest the elections independently as did the Haq-parasts of Mohajir Qaumi Movement with one electoral symbol.

Still, the PTI alone is perhaps in a position to scuttle Altaf’s plans if that is what he is planning to do. But for the PTI to win the hearts and minds of urban Sindh voters its leadership especially Imran Khan would have to spend more time between now and election date in Karachi.

The writer is a senior journalist based in Islamabad. He served as the Executive Editor of Express Tribune until 2014

Published in Daily Times, November 11^th 2017.