"THREE-PRONGED STRATEGY" OF THE ESTABLISHMENT AGAINST MOHAJIRS AND MUTTAHIDA QUAMI MOVEMENT (MQM)

A Policy Statement of Mr. Altaf Hussain
Founder & Leader of the MQM

London: December 15, 1998

Muttahida Quami Movement founder and leader Altaf Hussain has said that the Pakistani Establishment, secret agencies and the power-hungry mafia are working on a three-pronged strategy to eliminate Mohajirs, crush their representative political party, MQM and to conquer Karachi.

Elaborating different facets of this strategy in a thought-provoking lecture at the MQM's International Secretariat in London, Altaf Hussain listed them as:

1- Isolation: That Mohajirs in general and the MQM in particular is cut off from all other ethnic groups.

2- Criminalisation: That Mohajirs instead of being accepted as law-abiding citizens be treated as criminals. Moreover, their representative political party, the MQM, instead of being treated as a political party, struggling for the rights of Mohajirs be portrayed as a group of gangsters and terrorists who should be treated as habitual offenders.

3- Demoralisation: That the Mohajirs in general and the MQM workers in particular are disheartened and disappointed with the MQM and an overall depression is injected in their ranks.

He said the Establishment, secret agencies and power mafia is working in unison to physically eliminate Mohajirs, crush the MQM and capture Karachi. Governor's rule, establishment of summary military courts under Article 245, State-wide repressive operation against the MQM and the propaganda campaign through media trial are all part of the same strategy. He asked the intelligentsia, writers, poets, teachers, journalists, lawyers, doctors, engineers, students and especially MQM workers and Mohajirs to understand the mechanics of this strategy and continue their struggle without losing hope, with a firm belief that the MQM struggle against State repression, for which thousands have laid their lives, will not go waste.

In the lecture, attended by intellectuals, writers, teachers and political analysts, the MQM founder leader detailed injustices meted out to Mohajirs in various walks of life after the creation of Pakistan. Explaining as to why the MQM was opposed and State operations were carried out against it, Altaf Hussain elaborated the three-pronged strategy from all possible angles and the rationale behind it.

REASONS FOR OPPOSING MOHAJIRS AND THE MQM:

Altaf Hussain said Mohajirs in Pakistan have won freedom from the feudal shackles long ago, which have croppled other societal groups. Politically alive, Mohajirs live their lives according to their own will, while the majority of the ethnic groups in Pakistan are still forced to live in slavery, physically and mentally, to that crippling feudal oligarchy. He said the feudal oligarchy (sardars, jagirdars and waderas) in Pakistan have created a kind of family to permanently rule the country.

Since, the Mohajirs did not belong to that "family", they were regarded as a threat to their familial rule and systematic steps were taken during various governments to push Mohajirs out of the system. This process commenced right after the assassination of the first Pakistani Prime Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan. For example, the capital was shifted from Karachi to Punjab, Mohajirs were forcibly retired from bureaucracy and other government departments, educational institutions, industries and banks, established by Mohajirs were nationalised, chances to higher education and jobs were eliminated for them by introducing "quota system" in Sindh and linguistic riots were masterminded. All these steps were aimed at paralysing Mohajirs as a community so that they are left incapable to challenge the monstrous feudal system prevalent in the country.

These unbowing Mohajirs became ever more threatening for the feudal system when they decided to unite under the MQM banner as the party emerged as the sole representative of Mohajirs in the country. It was the only party with no feudal in its ranks and the leadership blossomed from the lower and middle classes. The prospect of seeing these "downtrodden" in the representative assemblies sent shudders up the feudal spine. They were afraid of a ripple effect of this Mohajir phenomenon in the poor Sindhis, Baloch, Punjabis, Pakhtoons Kashmiris and Seraikis, which could spell the end of feudalism in Pakistan.

This fear of losing control forced the Establishment to propel a propaganda campaign aimed at creating a Mohajir ghost to frighten other ethnic groups in the country. And to prove that the Mohajirs were against all other communities, the Establishment agents masterminded Punjabi-Mohajir and Pakhtoon-Mohajir riots in Karachi. Tragedies like Sohrab Goth on October 31, 1986 and Aligarh and Qasba Colony on December 14, 1986 were part of the same scheme after which thousands of MQM leaders and workers were arrested and put behind bars. The double-edged scheme aimed at creating fissures between the Mohajirs and non-Mohajirs on the one hand and scaring the Mohajirs to leave MQM on the other. An attempt which failed to materialise.

These anti-MQM moves pumped an impetus when the MQM won a heavy mandate in Karachi and Hyderabad in the 1987 local bodies elections. Groups were formed, consisting of terrorists and criminals, to attack Mohajir dwellings. After failing to cripple the MQM through manufactured Punjabi-Mohajir and Pakhtoon-Mohajir riots, the Establishment tried to create a rift between the Mohajirs and Sindhis and for that purpose, on 30 September 1988, Hyderabad Massacre was carried out through paid agents. This attempt to isolate and obliterate the MQM, like the previous, failed and the party emerged in the 1988 general elections as the country's third largest, Sindh's second largest and the largest in urban Sindh.

THREE-PRONGED STRATEGY:

When all the Establishment ploys e.g. the Aligarh, Qasbah and Hyderabad Massacres, attacks on different Mohajir localities and their indiscriminate killings, loot and plunder and widespread arrests of MQM leaders and workers did not diminish MQM popularity among its supporters, they devised a long-term strategy with three main features:

1- Isolation
2- Criminalisation
3- Demoralisation.

1- Isolation:

Altaf Hussain said that the first part of this three-pronged strategy is to isolate Mohajirs from the rest of the communities in the country, and this policy is underway through physical, psychological, social and political isolation of Mohajirs. He said the Establishment forced a military operation against Mohajirs in 1992 to legitimise the illegal and brutal actions against them. The Establishment deliberately used the army, knowing fully well that an army is the symbol of any country's national solidarity and when the same army starts action against any particular community, the message other communities get from this is that the action is legitimate. And even if they deem the action inappropriate, they should not have the courage to speak against it because of the involvement of the armed forces.

He said that through the policy of isolation of Mohajirs, the Establishment forced the MQM leadership either to go underground or seek refuge in exile. The link between the leaders and their people was severed aiming at disintegration of the movement. Mohajirs were brutally terrorised so that they quit the MQM and accept slavery. While the Mohajirs in general and the MQM in particular, were victimised through State operation, false and fabricated "torture cells" were "exposed" and the MQM was accused of terrorism. Television, newspapers and magazines were fed horrendous and fabricated stories of MQM brutalities so that the people of Pakistan start hating the party and the world consider the MQM a terrorist organisation.

Another attempt to isolate the MQM completely from other nationalities of Pakistan, was to accuse it of planning to create "Jinnahpur". An army brigadier, Asif Haroon, invited journalists from Punjab and showed them fabricated maps of this fictional country, "Jinnahpur". These maps were printed in newspapers across the country and thus an attempt was made to present Mohajirs as anti-Pakistan and secessionists. The purpose was to create hatred in the minds of all patriot Punjabis, Pakhtoons, Sindhis, Baloch, Seraikis and Kashmiris and every other Pakistani against the MQM by presenting the party as a terrorist outfit whose supporters were hell bent upon breaking the country.

Through false and fabricated accusations of Jinnahpur, the Establishment questioned the patriotism not only of the MQM but the entire Mohajir community, so as to completely cut them off from all other communities of the country. Why would the patriot Punjabis, Pakhtoons, Sindhis, Baloch, Seraikis and Kashmiris support the Mohajirs and their representative political party, the MQM, and raise their voice condemning the State brutalities against the Mohajirs and MQM, when they are being fed stories showing the Mohajirs and the MQM as enemies of Pakistan and anti-State villains.

Altaf Hussain said that under this policy of isolation, the Establishment provided the criminal Haqiqi terrorists with weapons, vehicles and money to kill MQM workers and sympathisers and allowed them a licence to carry out broad-daylight terrorism and mass killings. For the purpose of making No Go Areas, the Haqiqi terrorist were allowed to forcibly occupy Landhi, Korangi, Malir, Shah Faisal Colony and Lines Area localities under Establishment supervision so that the MQM is delinked from these areas, making it feel more isolated, and the world is given an impression that the people of No-Go areas are with Haqiqi terrorists and the MQM's support in Karachi is very limited. The Establishment also tried to split the MQM vote bank by dividing Karachi. On the one hand, Haqiqi terrorists were allowed to forcibly occupy Landhi, Korangi, Malir, Shah Faisal Colony and Lines Area localities, and on the other a new Malir District was created by merging certain rural areas of District East, so that the Mohajir majority polling district is curtailed and an impression is given to the world that MQM is only a District Central party and not a majority party of Karachi.

Altaf Hussain said that sometimes as a consequence of general elections, such a situation has been coming to the fore, which was not to the liking and policies of the Establishment. It is, therefore, that the Establishment adopted all tactics to eliminate the MQM, but the MQM withered all these pressures and continued to attract massive public support, which showed in successive general elections. Though these successes were against the desires of the Establishment, it had no other alternative but to invite the MQM in government formation because of its electoral position. But the Establishment's policy of isolating the MQM does not stop even when the MQM is part of the government. It just continues.

In February 1997, a coalition government was formed in Sindh province with the MQM and Pakistan Muslim League as partners. The PML had 14 members while the MQM had double of that figure i.e. 28, so logically the chief minister should have been from the MQM as it was the majority party. But it was kept away from the chief ministership under the same isolation policy. The post of the governor was also not given to the MQM despite a written agreement in that regard. To further worsen the situation, the MQM was kept away from all the administrative and government affairs. It was not involved even in the law and order meetings under the same isolation policy.

Altaf Hussain said the process of isolation is still on through the present State operation against Mohajirs in general and the MQM in particular, because the Establishment knows that unless a community is isolated from the others, any repressive action against it is not possible. That is why the Mohajirs and MQM are being accused of anti-State activities and tagged as Indian or RAW agents. Jinnahpur charge is again being trumpeted as if the MQM is struggling for an independent State. MQM once again, is being made target of worst kind of 'media trial'. People's minds are being poisoned through false stories and they are made to believe that killing Mohajirs is the only solution to save the State. This is being done in a way so that when the State-operation grinds the Mohajirs to extermination and their genocide is propelled with enhanced ferocity, no one comes forward to support them and other nationalities term this genocide as perfectly legal and legitimate.

Citing the example of the recent Governor's Rule in Sindh, Altaf Hussain said that while all the Mohajirs, Sindhis and settlers from other provinces protested the formation of military courts in Sindh and imposition of Governor's Rule as wrong, while people from the largest province settled in Karachi supported the same because they have been brainwashed through consistent government propaganda that unless the Mohajirs are eliminated, the non-Mohajirs in Karachi are not safe. The people are being tuned to anti-Mohajir stories to an extent that they start hating the word Mohajir. Altaf Hussain termed this the psychological isolation of Mohajirs where the psyche and psychological reactions of other nationalities and communities is being tuned in such a manner that they not only consider themselves separate from Mohajirs but detest them also.

Altaf Hussain said that from the very beginning, the Establishment has taught the other nationalities that only the "sons of the soil" have a right to live in Pakistan, while the Mohajirs are not accepted as "sons of the soil". Altaf Hussain said that Mohajirs have been portrayed as aliens and the Establishment has created a situation in the country through its venomous propaganda, branding them as traitors. When Mohajirs visit Punjab, NWFP and Balochistan, the people of those provinces see them with suspicion and they do not mix with them. Through this sort of mentality, the Establishment has tried to physically isolate the Mohajirs.

He said that the because of this sustained anti-Mohajir propaganda, non-Mohajirs do not invite Mohajirs to their functions and even if invited by chance they are treated as strangers. This, Altaf Hussain said, is the social isolation. He said that the Mohajirs are not invited in governmental functions and also in the functions arranged by the government functionaries in their private capacity where guests of other nationalities are invited. He said those Mohajirs, however, are invited who are part and parcel of government's over all anti-Mohajir policies.

The MQM leader commented that while all the other political and religious parties go on meeting each other despite their differences but the image of the MQM is tarnished through a sustained government propaganda and it is portrayed as a terrorist party which should not be accepted as a political organisation. This way the MQM is being politically isolated. He said the political opponents of the MQM blame it for segregating the Mohajirs from people of other nationalities while the facts are totally otherwise. The issue of "sons of the soil" is not an MQM initiative, the 1964 Pakhtoon-Mohajir riots were not engineered by the MQM, and neither was the MQM behind the 1972 linguistic riots nor was it behind the imposition of "Quota System" in Sindh province. The party, in fact, did not exist at that time. The Establishment masterminded these riots and clashes in an attempt to isolate Mohajirs from the rest of the nationalities.

2- Criminalisation:

Elaborating the second aspect of the Establishment's three-pronged strategy, Altaf Hussain said criminalisation means that a particular community and its representative political party is portrayed as criminals and terrorists, that they are permanently tagged as criminals for their elimination. Criminalisation of Mohajirs means that they are not only presented as criminals, but treated as criminals too. The Establishment has especially coined the word "terrorists" for MQM leaders, workers and sympathisers, and they are called the same in the TV, radio, newspapers and magazines. If they are called criminals and terrorists with such regularity, it is only natural that the people will regard them as the same after some time. This is the Establishment's official policy that the MQM is presented not as a democratic political party but as a party full of criminals and terrorists and a party working for the secession of the State. Its leaders, elected representatives, office-bearers, workers and sympathisers are treated as criminals and terrorists and not as political workers aiming for constitutional and fundamental rights.

That is why countless false cases of murder, attempted murder, arson, terrorism and disturbance of public order were instituted against the MQM's leaders, elected representatives, office-bearers, workers and sympathisers. All the members of the MQM's Co-ordination Committee (Rabita Committee) and elected representatives including Senator Aftab Sheikh, Senator Nasreen Jalil, Dr Farooq Sattar, Sheikh Liaquat Hussain and Senator Ajmal Dehlavi are facing over 80 cases of grievous nature ranging from murder, attempted murder to terrorism. And while instituting these cases, their age, profession, academic excellence, societal status, nothing was considered. What only was considered, was their association with the MQM. So whoever joined the MQM, had to face this truckloads of criminal cases. The image of all the MQM leaders, elected representatives, office-bearers, workers and sympathisers was portrayed as terrorists and criminals to defame them on national and international level. It was made sure that those intellectuals, professionals and educated people who even wish to raise their voice against the State brutalities should think a hundred times before supporting the MQM cause.

To block the middle class revolution, MQM's message was stopped from spreading to the poor and middle class of other provinces, the Establishment spun schemes and arrested and tortured those Punjabis, Sindhis, Baloch, Pakhtoons, Seraikis and Kashmiris and their family members who dared to join the MQM. But it could not suppress the Haq Parast (righteous) people of these provinces who want to carry out their struggle against the feudal oligarchy in the guise of Establishment. He asked if the MQM is full of criminals and terrorists, then why the Establishment fails to explain people's support for it? If the people are with the MQM, despite State suppression, does it not mean that the MQM demands are justified that people of Pakistan have been denied their basic fundamental rights and have their genuine problems, which are wrongly projected by the Establishment.

Altaf Hussain said through criminalisation policy, the Establishment wants to present it to the world that there is no denial of rights and civic resentment among the people of Karachi, Hyderabad and other urban areas of Sindh province and that the MQM workers and sympathisers are committing crimes so that they are portrayed as criminals and terrorists. He said work on criminalisation policy was underway before June 19, 1992 but after that it only grew in intensity. While the Haqiqi terrorists were provided a licence to kill the MQM workers, the same one-sided killing of the MQM workers under the supervision of official secret agencies was declared a "fight between two groups" or "factional fighting". Even the extra-judicial killings of innocent MQM workers at the hands of police, Rangers and secret agencies were termed as "police encounters". The world was told that an operation was on against criminals and no extra-judicial killing was underway.

Under the pre-planned policy of criminalisation, the people were made to believe through fed media reports that no terrorism or murders were going on in other parts of the country and only Karachi was burning. For this purpose, murders of personal vendetta and family disputes were termed as "terrorism" and Karachi was portrayed as a city of crimes. While killings and murders in Lahore (the capital of Punjab), a city of far less population than Karachi, are much more in numbers than Karachi, it was never said that there was terrorism going on in Lahore. The Karachi incidents were spiced up in an unusual manner as terrorism so that a justification is produced to launch a large scale State-operation by deploying security forces, imported from Punjab and other provinces, and that the Mohajirs are made a hostage in their own streets, once the democratic order is tucked away and supra-legal and ultra-constitutional actions are taken with impunity.

Altaf Hussain said that the MQM is accused of every criminal activity in Karachi and the reason given for this accusation is that since the MQM is the majority party in Karachi, hence its involvement in these acts of violence is nothing but natural. If we take this assumption as true then the blame for all killings, bomb explosions, sectarian violence and all sorts of terrorism in Punjab lies squarely with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and their Pakistan Muslim League as PML is the majority party in Punjab. But they are never implicated in terrorist cases, the PML is not projected as a terrorist party, because it is serving the Establishment agenda i.e. extermination of Mohajirs.

He said the Establishment, while propagating the policy of criminalisation, claims that Karachi is full of illegal weapons, which should be found through house-to-house searches, falls short of declaring similar action in Punjab where automatic modern weaponry is openly displayed on events like Basant (kite flying festival) and other "cultural" events. Even women indulge in ferocious firing with automatic weapons. Mosques are guarded by kalashnikov-totting gunmen. But it was never said that Punjab is full of weapons. Were those thousands of people killed in Punjab during the last one year, not victims of weapons? Or were they killed by slingshots, Altaf asked.

The MQM leader said that according to a pre-planned scheme, terrorism bogey was raised in Karachi, Hakim Saeed was murdered and Governor's Rule was imposed, Article 245 invoked and Army deployed, thereby not only democracy was slained but also the sanctity of judiciary and the high court was violated by establishing military courts. He said the government used Hakim Saeed's murder to impose Governor's Rule in Sindh, but no action was taken against the murder of known religious scholar and Chairman Ruet-e-Hilal Committee, Maulana Abdullah, the same day. Neither was governor's rule imposed on Punjab. This is all happening because the Establishment wants to project the whole Mohajir community as terrorists, whose mandate should not be accepted. Rather this mandate is being trampled with impunity.

The MQM leaders, elected representatives, office-bearers, workers and sympathisers are being treated as criminals, that is why sixty-year-old Shoaib Bukhari, a senior advocate and MQM's deputy parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly has to face over 100 criminal cases. He is being produced in the court of law, handcuffed. Similar fate is of Wakil Ahmad Jamali, a Sindh MPA.

The Establishment is claiming since 1992 that the operation is not against a particular political party but against 72 "Big Fish". But how many of these big fish have been netted so far and which other political party had to face the consequences of this operation, Altaf asked. "Are the members of other parties angels"? He termed it a national tragedy that MQM's elderly and elected representatives are being portrayed as criminals and terrorists, while those who have siphoned off billions of rupees from the nationalised banks and pocketed billions of dollars in armament deals are not accused of anything.

He said the Establishment is once again "unearthing" MQM's so-called "torture cells" which never existed, to defame the party at home and abroad but those existing and internationally acknowledged private jails of feudal oligarchy (jagirdars, sardars and waderas) in Punjab, NWFP, Sindh and Balochistan are not even touched and no operation is launched to unearth them. He further stated that on the pretext of Hakim Saeed Murder, Governor Rule has been imposed and military courts established in Sindh. The Establishment talk of even handed action on merit, but in Punjab, there have been thousands of deaths during last year in sectarian violence and other terrorist activities, why do they not impose governor rule and establish military courts in Punjab? He said that on the pretext of false cases, MQM is being crushed by the use of State brute force, those police and secret agencies' men who have killed innocent people in Karachi are not being brought to book. Were those innocent people not humans? Altaf Hussain asked, "whether murder is of a civilian or a member of the security forces, those are equally murders". And, therefore, if punishment is awarded to civilians, similar punishment must also be awarded to the personnel of the security forces. Since no one is above the law because murder of a man is the murder of mankind.

He said the Establishment has never accepted the Mohajirs' mandate, which they gave to the MQM time and again, though at times the MQM was made a part of the government. But the moment a State operation is launched against the MQM, all those people who gained employment because of MQM are thrown out from the Government departments. This process is on even today, a process, which can easily be called an economic genocide of the Mohajirs.

He said the arrested MQM workers are coerced to admit on national television that they have committed crime after receiving "directions" from London. London is being mentioned only for the reason that the British government is pressurised to shut the MQM's International Secretariat in London and that all the MQM leaders, office-bearers, workers and sympathisers, who are in exile, are evicted and their legal and constitutional struggle against the State suppression is checked.

3- Demoralisation:

Explaining demoralisation, Altaf Hussain said that all the three aspects of this Establishment strategy are inter-linked, because once people are isolated from their countrymen and criminalised through a sustained campaign, it is quite natural for them to lose morale. This is what the Establishment is doing; force the leadership to either leave the country or go into hiding or exile or arrest them, raid their houses, arrest innocent men (old and young), violate the sanctity of women and similar other tactics so that the whole community lose hope and quit the MQM. Altaf Hussain said the actual purpose of this three-pronged strategy is to eliminate Mohajirs for good and convert Karachi into a Punjab's colony. An aim only possible if they finish the MQM.

He appealed to intelligentsia, poets, writers, professors - especially of political science, teachers, students, columnists, lawyers, doctors, engineers and people from all other walks of life particularly MQM leaders, office bearers, workers and supporters, to see through this nefarious policy of the Establishment and asked them not to lose hope at any cost, remain united, steadfast and determined.

He said Establishments in Palestine, South Africa and Ireland employed similar tactics to curb movement for their rights. Their leaders were termed as terrorists, put behind bars for decades, communities were tortured, isolated and brutalised but to no avail. Yesterday's Arafat is today's Palestinian hero, Nelson Mandela, detained for 27 years, is now a Nobel laureate, while talks are going on with Irish leaders. Altaf Hussain stated that no oppressed nation has ever attained its rights within a period of five or ten years. They had to struggle for a long time. Nelson Mandela and his nation had to struggle for over fifty years. Similarly, Yaser Arafat and Palestinian people struggled for over fifty years. After huge sacrifices and over fifty years struggle, Kashmiri people could not get their right to self-determination.

But he added that these leaders and people had to struggle for much longer period and if the MQM struggle is compared to these movements, the MQM has won national and international acclaim in a much shorter time which should be regarded as a major achievement.

He said the Establishment in Pakistan is thinking that the morale of Mohajir community can be broken by victimising them to the worst kind of State suppression, but let me tell you, they will never succeed as all the tyrants had to accept defeat in the long run. The innocent blood, though shed in abundance, brings life back to suppressed people and this universal rule will again succeed in the case of the MQM. The suppressive actions of the State, oppressors and tyrants may create a momentary demoralisation, but in the end, the blood of the martyrs brings down the oppressors and the tyrants.