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