WHEN ATROCITIES AND OPPRESSION CROSS ALL LIMITS THEN NATIONS FIND WAYS AND MEANS FOR THEIR SURVIVAL - ALTAF HUSSAIN

 

London - 11 May 2000

 

Mr Altaf Hussain, MQM Founder and Leader, has said that the Establishment is working on the 'three pronged strategy' of isolation, criminalisation and demoralisation in order to crush the MQM and the Mohajirs. The modus operandi is to isolate the Mohajir community, treat them as criminals and through false stories and propaganda launch a State operation against them to generate demoralisation amongst the Mohajirs - forcing them to discontinue their struggle for their rights. However, the Establishment has overlooked the fact that this formula or conspiracy will be successful only against a small group of people but it will never succeed against millions of people of a nation struggling for their survival and the survival of their next generations. On the other hand when the atrocities and cruelties cross the limit then the oppressed nations find the ways and means for their survival. He was speaking over the phone with the members and associates of the MQM Legal Aid Committee from London.


Mr Hussain said that we have adopted every possible constitutional and legal method for the solution to our genuine grievances. Being a peaceful and democratic political party we presented our manifesto in 1987, took part in the local bodies elections and achieved massive success from the urban centres of Sindh. Our nominated candidates for mayor and deputy mayor for Karachi and Hyderabad were elected unopposed. We tried our level best to serve the people but faced persistent resistance from the Establishment and at last the local bodies were dissolved - the mandate of the people was not respected or accepted. In 1988, the MQM achieved historic success in the general elections and after several days of negotiations made a 59-point agreement with the Pakistan Peoples Party. Not even a single clause of that agreement was fulfilled -- instead an unending process of extra-judicial killings and unlawful arrests of MQM workers began. We again achieved massive success in the general elections of 1990 and made an alliance with the IJI of Nawaz Sharif. Despite fulfilling the agreement, an army operation was launched against us on 19 June 1992. During this operation, general elections of 1993 were held and at that instance General Naseer Akhtar, Corps Commander Sindh and other army officials imposed restrictions on our free participation in the elections. They wanted to restrict us to participate from a limited number of seats in Karachi and Hyderabad. The Coordination Committee announced to boycott the elections against such blatant unfairness and undemocratic acts. At that time, despite the fact that the operation against the MQM was continuing, it was subjected to worst media trial through false and fabricated stories, its workers were either imprisoned or in hiding, the people of Mohajir nation voluntary boycotted the national assembly elections on the appeal of the MQM. This historic boycott was also witnessed by international observers, who were present to monitor the elections and on their protest, the Establishment was compelled to allow the MQM to freely participate in the provincial assembly elections. On the notice of 24 hours, MQM participated in the elections and once again achieved historic success. However, the public mandate of MQM was not accepted by the incoming government of Benazir Bhutto and thousands of MQM workers in particular and Mohajirs in general were extra-judicially killed. The disrespect to the constitution and the law was evident from the statements of General Naseerullah Babar and other ministers of Pakistan Peoples Party in which they stated that it is useless to produce the MQM workers in the courts after their arrests and it is right to kill them in custody. It is really sad that after confessing to such crimes these people are still walking free.


Mr Altaf Hussain emphasised that once again the public mandate to the MQM was not accepted. MQM took part in the 1997 general elections and once again achieved the historic electoral success. The MQM once again formed an alliance with Nawaz Sharif because he had vowed and promised to work on the agreement and that he would not allow any operation against the MQM. In the Sindh coalition government, the MQM had 28 members and the Pakistan Muslim League had only 14 members. On principle, our member should have been made the chief minister but it was argued that if there would be a Mohajir chief minister then the sense of deprivation amongst the Sindhis would grow. Keeping in view the larger interest of the country and to extend our sincere well-wishes towards the Sindhi brothers, we sacrificed our right and accepted the chief minister of the minority partner. However, we were neither offered the post of the governorship as agreed nor any of the clauses of the agreement was fulfilled. The unlawful raids and arrests of MQM workers, continuation of the patronage of the Haqiqi terrorists and the reign of terror upon MQM workers and Mohajirs continued. On 22 January 1998, on the occasion of the opening of the Blood Bank of the Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation in Karachi, the families of the 28 missing MQM workers met and appealed to the then prime minister, Nawaz Sharif. On their identification, the prime minister suspended a police officer who was present at the occasion and was directly involved in the disappearance of the 28 missing MQM workers. But later that police officer was reinstated. Afterwards, democracy was abolished, governor rule was imposed and the media trial against the MQM commenced. Nawaz Sharif came on the television and took out a list from his pocket and started reading out names of persons involved in the murder of Hakim Saeed. Mr Hussain said that this is not the function of a prime minister to pronounce someone as murderer. The constitutional and legal process is that the police produce a suspect in the court of law and then the court decides whether the suspect is guilty or not guilty. But Nawaz Sharif chose to come on the television to malign the image of the MQM as 'terrorist' party. The nature has taken its course and now the same Nawaz Sharif has been judged as 'terrorist' by the same courts and is serving life sentence. These are the same courts, which Nawaz Sharif himself had established to victimise the MQM workers on false and fabricated cases. Our elected members had opposed the establishment of these courts on the floor of the assembly. The people who in the past have pronounced Mohajirs as 'rats', coward and having bad blood and challenging that Altaf Hussain should return back to the country and face the courts are today themselves scared to return to the country to face the same courts and have preferred to live in exile outside the country.


Mr Altaf Hussain said that the military government came into power after the dissolution of the government of Nawaz Sharif but the operation against the MQM continues, particularly for the past one month, its intensity has risen. The same tactics are being employed once again that were used on 19 June 1992 at the commencement of the army operation. Same sequence of the drama orchestrated at the time of unearthing fabricated torture cells, digging of graveyards and parks to show the recovery of arms is being played once again to portray the MQM as a 'terrorist' party. As in the past, once again media trial of the MQM has commenced - the drama of retrieving skeletons from old wells and the publication of table stories in State sponsored newspapers has commenced with a view to malign the image of the MQM in the eyes of the international community that MQM is not a peace loving political party but a 'terrorist' party. Mr Hussain said that the nature has once again turned the tables - on the one hand the Establishment is trying to label the MQM as 'terrorist’ party whereas, the entire world is labelling the Establishment of Pakistan as terrorist and US has put Pakistan on its 'watch list'.


Mr Hussain said that the Establishment knows it that the Mohajirs are still behind the MQM and if today free and fair elections are held then MQM will once again achieve massive electoral success. Therefore, they are using the same old tactics before the local bodies elections to present MQM as a 'terrorist' party in front of the public. He said that the Establishment is working on their 'three pronged strategy' to crush the MQM and the Mohajirs. Through this policy they want to first isolate the Mohajirs, through false, fabricated stories and media trial portray them as criminals, i.e. criminalisation, continue with oppression to generate a sense of demoralisation and force them to discontinue their struggle. However, the Establishment has overlooked the fact that this formula or conspiracy will be successful only against a small number of people but it will never succeed against millions of people of a nation struggling for their survival and the survival of their next generations.


Mr Altaf Hussain said that he would like to make it clear for the Establishment that through State oppression and medial trial; the struggle for rights cannot be crushed. We are determined today that till our last breath we will continue our rightful, democratic and peaceful struggle. Mr Hussain said that in Pakistan no party other than the MQM can call themselves a true peoples party. It is a historical fact that both the large political parties of the country are the by-products of the martial law and the Establishment. If for some reason an operation is carried out against these political parties then it is limited to a few leaders -- no State operation is launched against the entire voters and supporters of those parties, even if several big and corrupt leaders of those parties roam about freely. Whereas, there is not a single MQM leader or worker who has not been involved in cases of murders and attempted murders. Even the MQM voters are also a target of the State operation. It has never been witnessed that during an operation against the Muslim League, the people of Punjab were targeted by the State. Similarly, at the end of the Peoples Party government no action was carried out against the people of rural Sindh. People who have looked the national wealth are still free but Dr Farooq Sattar is being detained at Attock Fort despite the fact that he was not involved in any corruption. He was living in the same old house, which he used to live before becoming the senior minister in the Sindh government. The military government in Pakistan has arrested Dr Farooq Sattar on false and fabricated charges, whereas those who have looted the national exchequer are roaming freely.


Mr Hussain said that similarly in the case of the murder of American employees of United Texas Petroleum, innocent MQM workers have been awarded death sentences by the 'kangaroo courts' and more MQM workers are being arrested and forced to confess the same murder. On the other hand, the US Government and CPLC are daily publishing advertisements in the local newspaper offering huge reward for information leading to the arrest of the murderers of the American employees of Union Texas Petroleum. If MQM workers are involved in this murder then they have already been arrested and sentenced to death - therefore, it is clear from these advertisements that MQM workers are not involved in this murder and they have been wrongly sentenced by the courts. This also proves that the Establishment is using the courts to crush the Mohajirs and, therefore, courts are not independent in Pakistan. Mr Hussain said that how can one even dream of the independence of judiciary in a country where constitution is being crushed under military boots. The judges had taken oath of loyalty to the Constitution of Pakistan, therefore, the act of taking a fresh oath under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) was totally unconstitutional. Mr Hussain said that the judges from the province of Sindh refused to take oaths under the PCO whereas the judges from Punjab took their oath and were kept on the office. He said that it is clear from this point alone that the people of Sindh province and Punjab province have contrasting and contradicting views when it comes to the independence of judiciary and upholding of the constitution. Mr Hussain said that how can one accept these judges, who have taken the oath of allegiance to the military government instead of the constitution, to pass judgements according to the constitution. Mr Hussain lauded the efforts of the Members and associates of the MQM Legal Aid Committee, who had despite the disreputable situation of the judiciary, numerous obstacles from the Establishment, State terrorism and other difficulties, are providing legal assistance. He appealed to the members of the MQM Legal Aid Committee to remain steadfast, determined and continue to work with the same enthusiasm unitedly to further improve their work so that they could provide even more effective legal assistance with fewer complaints to the families of the detained.

 

CONSCIENTIOUS AND HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYERS SHOULD COME FORWARD TO ASSIST THE ARRESTED MQM WORKERS AND SYMPATHISERS --- ALTAF HUSSAIN