The Mission "Creeping Coup" And MQM!

“The chief of Pakistan's main spy agency is spearheading a campaign to wrest control of the teeming port city of Karachi from a powerful political party (MQM)”. This was mentioned in a report published by Reuters over the on-going operation in Karachi. Referring to some Pakistani officials, the report also claimed that military establishment had decided not to let any party rule Karachi. “For this purpose, the civilian administration in Karachi had been sidelined, and that decisions were being taken by the head of the Rangers and the chief military commander for Sindh”, said the report.( http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/27/us-pakistan-karachi-insight-idUSKBN0NH0WK20150427 )

Since 70`s, when it came into being, MQM has been politically representing the people of Urban Sindh. In 2015 too, it is the second largest party of Sindh province, third largest in the Senate and the fourth largest party in the national Assembly. From the water shortage issue in Karachi to the matter of national action plan, it has been very vocal. Keeping in view the Pakistani politics and the “forces” greatly influence it, MQM has emerged as the anti-establishment and, consequently, the anti-Taliban party in Pakistan. In other words, any plan to bring a change in the country`s politics and formulating a policy about Pakistani “Non-state actors” were not possible in MQM`s presence. 

These were reasons the reasons why ever since MQM came into being, it became the victim of atrocities both from state and non-state forces. Operation “Blue Fox” of 1992 obviously exposed who was trying to crush whom and how.

In June 1992, a full flesh military operation was launched in Karachi which targeted only MQM. In the beginning it was claimed that the military operation would be against criminals, robbers and the people who backed them. In this regard, a list of 72 on-target accused (termed as big fish) was also presented in the Parliament. MQM fully supported that. However, on 19^th June 1992, those people whom MQM had disassociated over the violation of party discipline (known as Haqiqi group), entered the city with sophisticated weapons, occupied MQM`s offices and declared themselves as the real MQM. Principally, if the Haqiqi group wanted to work separately from MQM, then it could have started its political activities by setting up its own offices. How could it have occupied MQM`s offices and declared them as their own? More importantly, why did the on-ground army personnel not take any actions against them?

This mystery got solved by then Chief of Army Staff Gen. Asif Nawaz himself when he expressed his views saying, “When Muslim League can be in groups, why not MQM”. Later on while commenting on the political turmoil in Karachi after the military operation, he further said, “Altaf`s chapter is closed now”. Chief of Army`s remarks not only answered why there was an unannounced ban on MQM, but also revealed why Altaf Hussain was pressurized to step down from the leadership of his own party in 1993.

Time proved that Gen. Asif Nawaz`s views and the resulted military operation were not merely the conduct of an individual army head at all, but a preset policy against Altaf Hussain and his party. That is why despite the death of Gen. Asif Nawaz and also the change of political governments in Pakistan several times, victimization of MQM continued. During all the phases of operations, thousands of MQM`s workers were killed both via extra-judicial killings as well as in target killings by patronized militants. Siege and search operations by Police & Rangers and the consequent arrests of mainly Urdu speaking people were in addition to them. In other words, the main targets of the military & political elites were Urdu speaking and their supported party MQM.

Pakistani political and military establishments always defended their operations against MQM in the name of targeting only criminals. Jinnahpur conspiracy, kidnap of major Kaleem, running torture cells, killing its political rivals, Hakeem Saeed murder etc were few of the main charges leveled on MQM. Although it took years and caused the loss of thousands of lives of its workers to MQM, all these charges got proved wrong in the court of law. In the recent past, some of the officials involved in the 90`s operations confessed on air that all the charges on MQM were baseless. Though the malicious intention behind the operations targeting MQM had been brought to light, yet no action was taken against all those involved in the bloody dirty game.

Then, in September 2014 too, one new operation was launched in Karachi with the same motto, “It would be conducted indiscriminately not against any political party, but the criminals”. But once again, MQM became the victim. This time, operation is being defended by referring to the verdict of the Supreme Court about militant wings of different political parties including MQM. However, it needs to be kept in mind that the Supreme Court`s observation over having militant wings was not the result of arguments, counter arguments and reliable evidences as required by a fair judicial trial, but was purely based on the reports presented and the briefings given to the judges not before the court, but privately in their chamber.

Furthermore, the credibility of the LAEs` reports against MQM can be judged on the basis of the Rangers- introduced NATO container story. Then DG Rangers Rizwan Akhter submitted a report to the Supreme Court in which he claimed that 19,000 NATO`s weapon-laden containers had gone missing (stolen) from Karachi port. He further said that these were the same stolen weapons, especially including 9mm pistol, being used in the violence. Rizwan Akhter accused MQM of being involved in this.

However, the US authorities altogether rejected the DG Rangers` claim stating that neither any of ISAF containers went missing , nor did it ever used Karachi port for transportation of weapons for NATO forces. This clarification exposed the reality of all the cases against MQM.

Question is, should any action not have been taken over maliciously accusing MQM and its leaders?

But, very unfortunately, instead of taking any action over this blatant allegation on MQM, he has been promoted as the DG ISI (head of the Inter-Services Intelligence, which traditionally acts as an extension of army power in Pakistan). This was not only a very clear message to Altaf Hussain that the military establishment would continue its anti-MQM policy, but was also an obvious indication of new actions to be taken against MQM.

Presently, whatever is taking place against MQM in Karachi is exactly what its leadership had been mentally prepared for. And the Reuters` report over what the Pakistani military establishment had decided about MQM`s fate endorses the same.

Pakistan is a country which came into being as the biggest state of Muslims of the world, but soon split into two pieces in 1971 when its bigger part (East Pakistan) became a separate state as Bangladesh. It was also the reaction of not accepting the political mandate of the Bengali speaking people. Instead of inviting their voted party Awami League to form government in the federation, a military operation was launched against them. 

But very soon, Pakistani army had to surrender before the Indian army. In Karachi, we are witnessing the similar situation that the military establishment is not willing to accept MQM`s mandate. Rather, it has been trying to at least, by force, separate its founder Altaf Hussain from it, otherwise, crush it eventually. The Reuters` words,"If Altaf Hussain steps down, the MQM will live on; if he doesn't, the party will go down with him," prove the same. 

However, the military establishment as well as MQM`s political rivals are completely ignoring the fact that such a policy and the resulted operations in Karachi are gradually pushing Urdu speaking community (Muhajirs) to the wall. Altaf Hussain`s latest speech, as a protest over calling MQM and Muhajirs as Indian/RAW`s agents, represents the rapidly mounting frustration in people who have lost thousands of lives in this dirty game.

Principally, any “mission” launched in order to forcefully replace MQM `s founder or the entire party with an establishment-patronized leader or group would be the sheer violation of the fundamental rights of the people who vote for it. Neither the country`s constitution nor the international laws infer authority to the Pakistani military establishment to decide the fate of the a political party MQM or dictate any specific community (Muhajirs) not to vote for their favorite party.

The Pakistani military and political rulers need to change their policies about MQM and Altaf Hussain and should take steps to compensate the losses they caused to them in the last several decades. Otherwise, it would be foolish to expect a positive outcome from an entirely a vicious act like “Mission Creeping Coup” in Karachi.