Frontier Post: November 4, 1998

Altaf excoriates PM for violating accords, hounding Mohajirs, creating bad faith between MQM and army

From REHMAT SHAH AFRIDI, SIKANDER HAYAT & ZAMIR HAIDER

ISLAMABAD - Muttahida Qaumi Mahaz chief Altaf Hussain has said that in the evolving political situation, his party is ready to join hands with others, including the PPP, on the basis of a single-point agenda: Restoration of the Sindh Assembly and provincial autonomy. "Provincial autonomy is essential for the survival of Pakistan."

In a wide-ranging telephonic interview with The Frontier Post Monday night from London, he said that the MQM was not involved in the assassination of Hakim Mohammad Said and confessional statements have been extorted against his party under duress and in police custody. Nawaz Sharif is responsible for the death of Fasih Ahmed, who was tortured to death.

He said that the on-going operation against MQM in Karachi is continuation of the June 1992 operation, which was also ordered by Nawaz Sharif himself, because he wanted to finish off the MQM and its leadership for their growing popularity. He warned against pushing the Mohajir community to the wall.

In the interview lasting for well over an hour Altaf Hussain spoke with great candour, frankness and clarity. He maintained that the Karachi operation had been motivated by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's ambition to convert Pakistan into his personal fiefdom like the Raiwind estate.

He held Nawaz Sharif responsible for breeding misunderstandings and hatred between Mohajirs and armed forces, explaining that after the June 1992 operation, that chasm was being abridged but the prime minister tried to sabotage it again.

The following is the text of the interview:

FP: Why did you rejoin the government after the assassination of Hakim Mohammad Said?

Altaf Hussain: When we left, the government sent us a number of representative delegations, which contacted our Coordination Committee, held talks and signed a memorandum of understanding. The government held out an assurance that the agreement of February 1997 and various other promises would be implemented in letter and spirit. It was their promises and assurances which made us rejoin the government so that the democratic process should continue and flourish. It was not that we joined the government soon after Hakim Said's assassination, but it was in the wake of various agreements and assurances made to our Coordination Committee that we decided to become part of the government again.

FP: Would you like to enlighten us on what this agreement of February 1997 was all about?

Altaf Hussain: Do you have a fax number? We will send you the signed text of this agreement. (And immediately after that the full text of that agreement landed in the Islamabad Bureau of The Frontier Post).

FP: According to press reports, you have accused Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of involvement in the assassination of Hakim Said?

Altaf Hussain: What I had said was that the way Hakim Said was murdered, investigations were conducted and unfounded allegations aired confirmed that the assassination plot was hatched by the government itself. It appears that for quite some time the government was planning to do something serving as a basis for an operation against the MQM. In fact, there is a long, sad and tragic story behind the so called anti-terrorist operation.

One tends to see others in the image of one's own self. We stand by what we commit to others irrespective of difficulties and hardships that might come about. We do not go back on our words and do not betray our partners. For example, the agreement of February 1997, to which we clung hermetically, but the government did not honour its pledges. Still, we continued supporting the government through all thick and thin. Meanwhile, brutal killing of our workers began.

In the latest phase of cooperation, over 300 MQM workers were martyred and sometimes 10 to 15 workers were killed with a numbing frequency. But despite the fact that the killers were identified in FIRs, the government, in contravention of many commitments, did not arrest any killer.

You may recall the episode of the prime minister's confrontation with former chief justice Sajjad Ali Shah when it appeared that the Nawaz Sharif government might not last a day or two. Such was the degree of certitude about the imminent departure of the Nawaz Sharif government that its own members and allies were turning their faces away from the prime minister, who was left high and dry.

At that critical time, the MQM swung behind Nawaz Sharif in the thick of the paralysing politico-judicial face-off.

We thought that as we had honoured our commitments, the prime minister would repay with equal honour and nobility. As we are an organisation of principle valuing our commitments; we expected that others with whom we have reached accords would respond with the same sincerity. Then the question arises why did the MQM repose confidence in Nawaz Sharif, who backed out of the 1990 agreement, under which the MQM had joined the government both at federal and provincial levels?

Just about the same period, army operation was launched against the MQM, which continues to date. It is also asked why the MQM joined the government again in 1997.

Now the time has come that various questions should be replied. At the time of army operation (June 1992), the prime minister and his colleagues gave us the impression that the army did not take the government into confidence and started the operation against the wishes of Nawaz Sharif. But now it has become crystal clear that this operation had the blessings of the prime minister, although all along the PML leadership, very often on oath, tried to assure us that it was not behind the military operation, and it was Gen. Asif Nawaz who launched the crackdown on his own.

Then we asked, ok if you form the government, what is the guarantee that there would be no operation against the MQM next time. Nawaz Sharif offered us cast-iron guarantees that the MQM would face no more swoops. And if there is any that they could not stop, they would also quit the government.

Now that the army has not come but the operation is on and there is a spate of allegations against the MQM, it is clear that it was Nawaz Sharif who initiated the June 1992 operation but kept the world in the dark, insisting that it was an army operation launched against his consent. Hence, the question: Why is Nawaz Sharif targeting the MQM?

You may recall that on 23rd March, 1990, there was a mammoth public meeting in Lahore at Minar-i-Pakistan, in which I also participated. That was my first public address in Punjab. My speech was widely welcomed by the people. Nawaz Sharif's advisers warned him that if Altaf Hussain made six or seven such speeches in Punjab, the Muslim League would be out.

Nawaz Sharif felt threatened because of the realisation that if the MQM philosophy of realism and pragmatism, which appealed to the middle class, was allowed to spread, the masses will gather under MQM flag. To this, Nawaz Sharif said that the people will gather under MQM flag if it survives.

To counter that possibility, a conspiracy was hatched in the name of catching the 72 big fish, for which the army operation would be launched. The list of 72 persons, supposedly identified, are the elements involved in anti-social and criminal activities, kidnapping for ransom, dacoities and their patrons.

To justify the action, a large number of such crimes were engineered by the government itself and they were given wide projection both inside and outside the world.

You tell me if a single individual out of these 72 was caught. On the other hand thousands of MQM workers were arrested but 72 were never found. That clearly shows national as well as international world understood that the operation was launched to eliminate MQM. That operation was not against terrorists, dacoits and car-lifters. When the army is used by the government to attain its political objectives against any particular party, it is obvious that the force is brought in front of that community. Then indifference comes to obtain between the two. In fact, it was a conspiracy to pit the armed forces against the Mohajirs, who always had great respect for the army. This conspiracy was to create hatred between the army and the people.

Mohajirs have always been considered allies of the armed forces. Whenever army is called out for an operation against any community, it is obvious that misunderstandings would develop between the army and that particular community. At that time, the patriotic people and those who understood the gravity of the situation advised that the army should be pulled out of Sindh.

So the army was pulled out and misunderstandings began to disappear. When mutual trust was being restored, Nawaz Sharif started hatching conspiracies once again. To our demand that the Haqiqi terrorists be disarmed and families dislocated during the operation be rehabilitated, we were always told that while the government would very much like to do so, the army was a hurdle, and that the government would talk to the army. But the government itself was the hurdle.

We expected Nawaz Sharif to act as a bridge between the army and the Mohajirs, but he did not do so. As it often happens, details emerge later on. In contravention of the February 1997 agreements, the Muslim Leaguers from Karachi made statements that in the next local bodies' elections, Karachi will go for the Muslim League. That would make you comprehend the chain of events - assassination of Hakim Saeed followed by allegations against the MQM and then the ensuing operation. The fact is that Nawaz Sharif wants to establish the hold of his party in urban centres of Sindh with the help of state-sponsored terrorism.

I would like to appeal to the intelligentsia, journalists, political and religious parties, and the armed forces to play their role in halting the swoop initiated in June 1992. They should help heal the MQM wounds by playing their part in restoring lost confidence between Mohajirs and the armed forces.

In the name of combating terrorism, Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, MirpurKhas and Nawabshah are being subjected to house-to-house search and raids. And imagine, the list of terrorists includes the names of Aftab Sheikh, Nasreen Jalil, Dr Farooq Sattar - name any MPA or Senator - all were arrested on the pretext of man-hunt for terrorists.

To push one particular community against the wall is never in the interest of the country and the nation. This should not be done. What I want to say is that it is the time to heal the wounds and not to start a new operation based on false allegations.

Hakim Said has been murdered; we are sad, we expressed grief and demanded arrest of the killers. Hakim Said was a national figure and his killing was a national tragedy. I ask why Nawaz Sharif did not express that much concern over the murder of Maulana Abdullah, who was slain in Islamabad the same day. He invented a story about the murder of Hakim Said. Murder is murder, be the victim an unknown person; he is also somebody's son, brother or father.

Before the killing of Hakim Said, 300 MQM workers were brutally killed and details were sent to the prime minister for action, but he never came up with such a prompt reaction. Why?

Why did not the murder of Maulana Abdullah trigger the imposition of the governor's rule in Punjab, just because his (Nawaz's) brother is the chief minister of that province. If Karachi is the scene of murder and mayhem, in Punjab there are blasts killing some times 30 to 40 people in a single day. But neither an operation has been launched, nor has the provincial assembly been suspended.

The NWFP and Balochistan, too, have been violently disturbed, but no such action is taken. Nawaz Sharif is not pushed about whatever is happening elsewhere. He was a capitalist and later became a feudal after taking over Raiwind, then Punjab and now he wants to make the rest of Pakistan his Jagir. In Sindh, the MQM had 28 members against the Muslim League's 14, which entitled us to have the chief ministership, but we surrendered this to the Muslim League as a goodwill gesture for the sake of democracy.

I would advise Nawaz Sharif to change the name of his party from Muslim League to Qabza League. The actions of the government are prompted by its desire to impose Muslim League on Sindh and we are being punished for not endorsing his self-serving Shariah Bill.

FP: What is your reaction to Governor Moinuddin Haider's statement that the operation is against terrorists only and not any political party?

Altaf Hussain: We only condemn the governor's rule as it is against democracy. We declare it as a murder of democracy. We declare it as a transparent fraud cloaked in massive public mandate.

FP: Do you think that the arrest of Haqiqi workers is aimed at projecting an equal action against terrorism in Karachi?

Altaf Hussain: Haqiqi is their own brain-child and creation. Its members were arrested to fool the people. They have now been released.

FP: Would you like to comment on the allegation that the murder of Hakim Said was planned at Nine-Zero under the supervision of an MQM MPA?

Altaf Hussain: We will hand over the MPA when Nawaz Sharif is out of power. If the PM says that I am wrong, he should tell me why his brother ran away to London when the previous government filed cases against him and lived for a year in exile.

FP: Was he not there for medical treatment?

Altaf Hussain: He was alright. He used to go around the city. And one of the federal ministers, Ishaq Dar, remained in exile for two years. Was he also getting medical treatment?

A confession wormed out in police custody has no legal or constitutional effect and holds no lawful ground. Fasih Ahmed was tortured to death for a confessional statement. Nawaz Sharif is responsible for his murder, because he had ordered that a confession statement should be extracted at any cost. He is dead and cannot be produced before any court of law or even Supreme Court or the Lahore Press Club to say that his statement was fake.

FP: Is your party trying to file an FIR against the prime minister?

Altaf Hussain: Yes we are trying. Our legal experts are looking at it from different angles and some petitions have been filed and more will be filed in the Supreme Court. Fasih's mother has filed a case and we will also submit a case on behalf of MQM.

FP: You have already talked to Akbar Bugti and Wali Khan. Would you like to contact PPP also, the biggest party in Sindh?

Altaf Hussain: We have ideological, and differences with the PPP. We were subjected to great tyranny during their regime. But we have given a one-point agenda, that is, restoration of the Sindh government and provincial autonomy. We will welcome any party including the PPP to join us in the struggle for the realisation of this agenda.

FP: Will the MQM now go to the courts or will it take to the streets?

Altaf Hussain: We will go to courts and fight a legal battle with full force and we will also resort to peaceful demonstrations, which is our democratic and constitutional right when the time comes.

FP: Why have you asked your workers to go underground when the PM has assured of no political victimisation?

Altaf Hussain: Have you forgotten that Amirullah was arrested on October 21, 1998 and on October 23rd his mother and sister addressed a press conference in Karachi Press Club, alleging that Amirullah was being subjected to severe torture for a confessional statement. He has been even offered rewards. Another MQM man Dr Asim Raza was arrested on October 19 and was also subjected to torture, which ultimately led to his renal failure and is now fighting for life in Aga Khan Hospital. Fasih was murdered. How can you expect from us that we would hand over our workers for being subjected to torture? We might have given a serious thought to prime minister's demand for surrendering our men if Fasih had not been killed and others had not been tortured.

FP: Do you have faith in the superior judiciary?

Altaf Hussain: It is a different matter whether our judiciary is independent or not. But it is on record that the prime minister read out a confessional statement on the television and radio, which was taken during police custody. This is an attempt by the Amir-ul-Momaneen to influence the judiciary. We will file a suit against Nawaz Sharif on this account.

FP: There are reports that the government is seeking your extradition through Interpol. Have you been contacted by the British government?

Altaf Hussain: The British courts are not under the influence of Raiwind estate. They are independent. It is not possible for a British prime minister to get a confessional statement from an accused in police custody. Should he do that, the very next day he would be out of office. There is rule of law in Britain. The government is welcome to try for my extradition, but I am not worried because the British government knows the legal values of such video tapes and confessional statements. All the more my extradition is difficult for Nawaz Sharif as he is himself in British newspapers for his ill-gotten property and bank balances. How can he fight against me when he has to settle his own affairs in Britain?

FP: Is it possible for the MQM to join hands against the government with other parties, including the PPP?

Altaf Hussain: Yes, on the one point agenda, i.e. restoration of Sindh Assembly and provincial autonomy. It may taste bitter but the fact is that the survival of Pakistan lies in provincial autonomy.