Is Pakistan Being Controlled & Run By A Mafia?

In a very important statement issued few days ago, MQM`s founder Altaf Hussain said, 

“Pakistani Government, Pakistan Army and other agencies have decided to kill me at all cost in Britain. When a person holding a very high and important office told a powerful general that Altaf Hussain lived in another country and how could he possibly be killed there, the general replied we would do it with such nicety that no one would blame us.” He added that all the arrangements had been made.

In his repeat telecast of March 2008`s interview, Ch. Nisar revealed that then army chief General Pervez Musharaf wanted the Prime Minister`s Nawaz sharif`s approval to eliminate Altaf Hussain even in UK through his means in such a way that the blame would not come on Army. A well-known journalist Hamid Mir too, in one of his columns, had quoted General Pervez Msusharaf`s statement about Altaf Hussain according to which he had said, “I feel like shooting him (Altaf Hussain) dead”.

As soon as MQM`s leader showed his reaction, Pakistani media objected, instead of the Army chief`s remarks, to Ataf Hussain that why he reacted to an old statement that way. None of anchorpersons asked how the hell an army chief could vow to execute a political leader, especially belonging to a specific community? Question is, was he the chief of a state`s army or a head of a mafia?

The people who are fully aware of the prevailing mindset in the Pakistani military establishment are not surprised over these remarks. They say that these views are not only of one army general, but in fact are the reflection of the prevailing mindset in the Pakistani military establishment about MQM and its leadership.

Yes, they are very much right as MQM and Altaf Hussain have been the victims of the atrocities directly led by the military establishment since 80`s when they entered into the Pakistani politics. 

In the early 90`s, Altaf Hussain narrowly escaped a assassination attempt when he was returning to his house from the Karachi airport on his way back from London. The attackers had planned to target him with sophisticated weapons near Aysha Manzil when a hand grenade itself went off killing the attackers themselves. That was the first attack on Altaf Hussain due to which MQM`s central committee made the wisest decision and sent him back to UK again.

The military operation of 1992 which tried to eliminate MQM`s role from the country`s politics exposed the establishment`s malicious intention against Altaf Hussain. During the same military operation, MQM`s then chairman Azeem Ahmed Tariq was murdered at his home and the killers went away easily even when the army was on high alert due to its on-going operation in Karachi. 

The instant wall-chalking in Karachi the same night accusing Altaf Hussain of being behind the murder was, no doubt, a tactic to divert the attention from the army officers who had guaranteed the deceased for providing the due protection to him on his giving up the hiding. 
Dr. Imran Farooq was the second prominent leader of MQM, after Azeem Ahmed Tariq, being on the hit list of then army General Asif Nawaz Janjua who openly announced to have closed Altaf Hussain`s chapter. When Dr. Farooq could not be trapped like the party chairman, Rs. 700,000 were announced as his head money by the state authorities. 

The head money was an open license to the establishment`s “means” to kill him “legally”.  However, he got lucky and could not be traced till he left for UK in 1999. Eventually, he was got eliminated in London in such a way that there was no blame on the Pakistani military establishment. 

The wall-chalking in Karachi once again declaring Altaf Hussain for the murder of his own most reliable party member definitely helped the establishment divert the attention from his real enemy who had made almost impossible for him to stay alive in Pakistan during the 90`s.

In addition to the MQM`s founding members and elected representatives, thousands of workers and voters (exclusively Urdu speaking) were killed in the same city which has been under the complete control of Army and its sub-force (Rangers) since 1992 in the disguise of restoring peace. 
Political rivals, nationalists, religious and sectarian groups all contributed to the mass killings of Muhajirs (Urdu speaking) as “Means” of the establishment. And the way the one-sided and planned genocide of Muhajirs was painted as a turf war of Karachi was the true reflection of getting the job done without letting the blame come on the real conspirators behind it. 

Though the biggest, but this is not only MQM which has been the victim, there is a long list of the people who have faced the similar rivalry from the military establishment since Pakistan came into existence. From Khan Liaquat Ali Khan (the first Prime Minister of Pakistan) to the recently murdered social activist Sabeen Mehmood and her driver; all are those who are believed to have been got rid of through its means by the establishment.  

PPP`s founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was hanged by then Army chief general Zia-ul-Haq apparently as per the judgment of the Supreme Court. But the lawyers` movement in 2007 for independence of the enslaved judiciary (for last 60 years) also indicated how the judiciary was used as a means to eliminate a rival leader by an army chief. That is the reason why his hanging is still termed as a judicial murder. 

After Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Shahnawaz Bhutto, who was actively raising voice against the military dictator`s rule was founded dead in France. Bhutto family sees the hands of Pakistan army in the unnatural death of its member. Then, the time came when Mir Murtaza Bhutto (the second son of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto) was killed in a controversial police encounter during the rule of his own sister Ms. Benazir Bhutto.

The judicial commission, set up to investigate the same, came to a conclusion that the wound of the injured police officer Haq Nawaz Seyal was not the result of a bullet fired in the encounter from a distance, rather seemed to have been deliberately caused by a short range fire. 
Consequently, on the orders of the commission, the said police officer was taken into custody for further investigation. But, the following day, the arrested police officer was found dead. Who killed him in the tight police custody when a high profile case was being probed, is still a big question, but neither for the Bhutto family nor for all those who are aware of the power and the “means” of the military establishment. The Asghar Khan case exposed more clearly how the military establishment was using its “means” against Benazir Bhutto.

The establishment`s rivalry with the Bhutto family did not stop here. Benazir Bhutto was eventually killed on 27<sup>th</sup> December 2007 when she was returning after having addressed a public gathering at Laiquat Bagh ground in Pindi. This time, the establishment`s means were the ones commonly known as the Strategic Assets of Pakistan. 
Furthermore, PPP`s then Ambassador to US Hussain Haqqani is still in America due to the life threats from the Pakistani military establishment. His alleged crime was to have written a letter to the US authorities calling their attention to the ISI`s conspiracy to topple the PPP`s elected government.   

In addition, the social activist Sabeen &, later on, her driver were murdered for having raised voice with Mama Qadeer against the missing persons of Balochistan. Hamid Mir too was tired to be murdered like a journalist Saleem Shehzad for similar reasons. But luckily, he survived and clearly held ISI responsible for the conspiracy to assassinate him.

Keeping in view all these things, does the country`s law allow an institution to use its legal and/or illegal means to eliminate any person, party, elected government or even a community if it tries to go against its wrong-doings? Is all that not an act of creating a state within a state?
The pro-Jihad and pro-Taliban policy have already defamed Pakistan and its army a lot. Now, the nasty game of eliminating opponents within and outside the country would only invite extremely serious repercussions for the country as no wrong doing can ever bring positive results. Let`s see if the “forces” concerned revisit their policies or keep heading towards their logical end.