Will The Military Establishment Decide Karachi`s Political Future??

Recently, PTI`s leader Faisal Vowda, while talking to the news reporters in London, revealed that Imran Khan had been promised that Karachi would be handed over to him before the end of this year. Although many neutral analysts as well as MQM`s supporters had already thought so, such an on-record confession from PTI`s own leader was an obvious endorsement to the general perception in Karachi.

One million question is, who has decided to hand over Karachi (MQM`s political fort) to its rival Imran Khan? All those who are fully aware of the reality of the Pakistani politics do understand that it can be no one else other than the military establishment which makes such important decisions. 

The history reveals that there has never been any good relationship between the country`s most powerful force (military establishment) and MQM since the beginning. Nor is it for the first time to hear of its attempt to politically snatch Karachi from MQM. From PPI (Panjabi Pakhtoon Ittehad) to PTI (Pakistani Tehreek-e-Insaf) and from Sunni Tehreek to TTP, there is a long list of the ISI-backed parties or groups which were created and supported to counter MQM, which primarily emerged for the rights of Muhajirs/Urdu speaking people (who migrated after the partition of the undivided India) and politically took stand against feudalism and the army`s pro-Taliban and pro-Jihad policies. 

These were, in addition to the ethnic rivalry with MQM, the main reasons that turned the Punjab-based military establishment deadly against it.

Soon after MQM began its struggle against the decades-long discrimination to Muhajirs, PPI was created which made a mess with it and turned its under-controlled areas a hell for Muahajirs. 

The only purpose of PPI`s politics was not only to give tough time to MQM, but also to dispel the impression that Karachi was being ethnically dominated by the Urdu speaking community. Thousands of people (majority Muhajirs), lost their lives during this campaign. Importantly, the law-enforcement agencies played their ethnic-wise partial role in providing protection to the people.

After PPI, Haqiqi group was deployed in Karachi on 19^th June, 1992 under the full cover of the army personnel. The so-launched militants occupied MQM`s offices declaring themselves as the real MQM and made most of the city as No-Go area for MQM. 

They on gun forced MQM`s workers and leaders to change their political loyalty from Altaf Hussain to the Haqiqi`s head. Hundreds of MQM`s workers and leaders including its chairman Azeem Ahemd Tariq lost their lives during this filthy process.

All this viciousness took place in the presence of the army which was already on roads in the connection of an operation against the 72-big fish (land grabbers and robbers) as decided and approved by the Pakistani Parliament. It looked as if Karachi had been militarily handed over to the MQM`s rivals.

Instead of taking actions against the invading militants (Haqiqi group) and providing protection to the victims, Army launched a fierce operation exclusively against MQM and its followers. This is how MQM and its voters were targeted from two sides at a time.

Establishment`s support to the Haqiqi terrorists got more exposed when during the 1993`s general elections (which were held in the army`s presence), MQM was not provided an equal opportunity like the other political parties to contest the polls. 

Dozens of its workers were kidnapped and brutally killed merely over trying to run the party`s election campaign in the Haqiqi-occupied areas. As a result of these, MQM had to boycott the elections.

Keeping in view the special protocol and protection Rangers (sub-force of army) gave to the PTI`s candidate for the bye-election campaign of NA-246, it becomes more obvious that the bloody hostile environment created for MQM in the 93`s general elections (leading it to the boycott) was surely as per the viciously formulated policy by the military establishment. 

After the Haqiqi group, Karachi-ites witnessed another bloody attempt of politically sidelining MQM though Pashtun-based ANP under the slogan of “Karachi is not of Urdu speaking only, but of all” and “Karachi is the biggest city of Pashtoons”. 

Thousands of Urdu speaking people robbed, kidnapped, tortured and even killed on ethnic basis. Many areas especially including Banaras and Katti Pahari were converted into the most dangerous areas for Urdu speaking people by the ANP terrorists. 

But, both the Police and the Rangers closed their eyes as if they had licensed ANP of ethnic cleansing of Muhajirs. Shahi Syed played the leading role in this brutality. 

The ANP central leadership awarded the ticket of Sentorship to him for “having put a hook in MQM`s nose”, as confessed by Ilyas Bilour (a prominent party leader) on the national news channels. 

Along with ANP, PPP-backed Liyari gangsters also added to this brutality. Hundreds of Urdu speaking youngsters were kidnapped, brutally tortured, slaughtered and even cut into pieces in Liyari which is known as the political fort of Pakistan People`s Party in Karachi.

As a result, hundreds of people had to migrate from the gangsters-held areas to save their lives. 

A well known journalist Saleem Safi revealed in its column that all that was as per the directions given to the Liyari gangsters by the PPP`s Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari as he had wanted to broaden its political hold in the port city by confining MQM to just few areas of Karachi.

In short, since MQM`s inception in 80`s, Pakistani military establishment logistically backed their favorite parties and groups to crush or at least sideline MQM for politically and ethnically taking over Karachi. From political parties to the ethnic groups and from law-enforcement agencies to the banned outfits, all were used for this nasty purpose.   

The 2013`s general elections is also a proof of how the state authorities allowed Taliban terrorists to target MQM in order to give a space to its political rivals. 

All these takeover attempts have caused an ir-repairable human loss to the Urdu speaking community adding to their frustration.

Therefore, this is a high time for the present Army Chief General Raheel Sharif to immediately stop this evil game and adopt the necessary measures for removing the long-prevailing grievances of MQM and Muhajirs. Otherwise, the establishment-led Muahjirs` genocide is echoing outside Pakistan too.