Daily Times

Familiarity breeds contempt. The foul-mouth venom of the man from UK. The incensed, volatile workers. Mob attack. Destruction. Condemnation and a few arrests. An apology and back to normal. However, the happily-ever-after has turned into unhappily hereunder. The drama is the same but the story takes a new twist. The minus one and plus two multiply into an equation that is so weird that a very few people in Pakistan doubt that this is just another stitch in the scheme of ‘save MQM’ and ‘hail Quaid-e-Tehreek’ serial slogans. Whatever the reality may be, the real fact of the matter is that this party continues to symbolise the extent of the demonisation of politics in this country. The sad part is that this was not how this party came into being, and this is not how it should cease to be. A party that came into origin on the basis of its stand against discrimination and oppression has ostensibly become the biggest oppressor in the country. The main weapons they have used are fear and force, which have an intoxicating power to gain quick grounds but are inevitably limiting and unsustainable.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) started as a story of the voice of the voiceless. Mohajirs who migrated in great numbers at the time of partition felt that they were discriminated against by Punjabis and Pakhtuns in the 1950s. They believed that Pakistan’s capital was moved from Karachi to Islamabad to please these communities, and that the dominant decision makers in government and state were also mostly from these backgrounds. Altaf Hussain quotes many such incidences during the 1971 war and later where he felt both as a trainee and a student how Punjabis ridiculed the Urdu speaking youth and cadres. That motivated him to form the All Pakistan Mohajir Student Organisation (APMSO) in 1978. His slogan of “Mohajir liberation” stuck a chord not only in students but also in intellectuals and writers who were proponents of Urdu language. He quickly established his identity, and by developing a very strong training and organisation system of indoctrination of this ideology, he was able to become an effective voice in Karachi politics.

The training on Nazm-o-zabt ke taqaze (code of conduct) was part of every MQM leader where the ideology was taught based on the four pillars of the MQM. The first pillar: “blind faith in the leader.” This was such a powerful tenet it that had religious conformance to it. Questioning or showing dissent to the quaid’s (leader) actions or deeds was blasphemy. This has been the main reason why the remote control leadership from the UK has remained intact for so long. But blind faith was not just due to the inculcation of this ideology. It was also a very organised and ruthless system of benefitting people who followed the doctrine that made the mindless following last so long.

People in charge of sectors and units were instructed to look after the followers in time of need and in time of celebrations. Thousands of jobs were negotiated on the basis of political and militant clout in government and other organisations where many MQM workers as ghost workers received a salary without putting in the required effort. In return, they followed the party’s instructions robotically.

The fikri nashist (intellectual discourse) and the tarbiyati discourse (training session) are aimed at creating a super special personality of the quaid who has the status of a pir (religious mentor) whom you follow regardless of the consequences. That combined with making the mohajirs a major power in the city; moreover, the emotional and financial care given to the underprivileged made the MQM member a staunch loyalist. For many, the appeal of lifting the ordinary and making them extraordinary was also a big influence. The likes of Mustafa Kamal and Dr Farooq Sattar supported MQM’s claim of being a party of the middle and lower class, a vacuum left by a depleting Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

The death of a mohajir student in the 1980s, and the subsequent fight with the Pakhtuns made the MQM weaponise as a result of the arms available due to the Afghan war. This was the period where the ability to fight and draw blood and get away with it due to political clout became a way of life for the MQM. The operation against the MQM in the 1990s was when Altaf Hussain fled, and used the hate sentiment to avenge this operation sitting in the UK. Meanwhile, politics of compromise gave space to this fascism. Pervez Musharraf, desperately in need of political legitimacy, embraced the MQM with glee. The NRO he gave to the political parties actually benefitted the MQM the most with 3,775 criminal cases written off. This was the golden period for the MQM where extortions, china-cutting and target killing became the modus operandi, but nobody could dare to challenge the party openly. The PPP and the PML-N being weak in Karachi traded alliances in exchange of allowing militancy of the MQM. Meanwhile, anybody who disobeyed the “Quaid” had to disappear, Mustafa Kamal and Imran Farooq case in point.

Altaf Hussain became the political Frankenstein whose monstrous ego made it impossible for many moderate MQM workers to go along with the most embarrassing of his statements. It was Raheel Sharif who in the All Party Conference after the Peshawar incident, on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s insistence that militant wings of political parties should also be put in the National Action Plan, took on the MQM through Rangers’ operations.

Despite the fact that target killing has decreased and crime has receded, the fundamental questions remain. Why has this operation not been able to pin down MQM leaders who have been named by their own workers who have confessed to different crimes? Why has the UK government not taken action against Altaf Hussain on money laundering and hate speeches? Why have the provincial and federal governments not set up NAB cases? Does disassociating from London means a clean chit to all those leaders who were justifying their quaid’s anti-Pakistan tirade a day earlier?

Politics of fear is just not based on body-bags, it is also based on money bags. The other major political parties have used confiscation of money, destruction of merit and auctioning of positions to subdue challengers. Unless a surgery of all ‘fear tumours’ is not done, the ‘operation’ will not be successful.

The writer is a columnist and analyst and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com