The MQM tamasha

Side-effect

The writer is a poet and author based in Islamabad.

Iftikhar Arif, one of our leading poets, says in one of his relatively recent ghazals: “Naey kirdar aatey jaa rahey hain raushni mein… Nahin maloom ab kis dhab tamasha khatm hoga (New characters continue to appear under the spotlight… No idea what twists and turns will finally bring this performance to an end.)”

I hope Arif will forgive my crude, off the cuff translation of his beautiful verse. What reminded me of this ghazal was the sudden appearance of Mustafa Kamal and Anees Qaimkhani, two veteran MQM leaders, on the political scene a few days ago. They announced a new political party – yet to be named – and denounced Altaf Hussain and his leadership in the harshest possible terms by branding him a traitor who works for and accepts money from the Indian intelligence.

Mustafa Kamal, the much celebrated mayor of Karachi during the Musharraf years, was once the blue-eyed boy of MQM supremo Altaf Hussain. With a massive flow of funds from the government of the time, he did in Karachi what the Sharifs are known for doing in Lahore – building roads, bridges, bypasses and underpasses and concentrating on keeping the rich and planned parts of the city clean of filth, standing water, effluent and solid waste. I deliberately say rich and planned parts of the city because half of Karachi and a third of Lahore lives in slums. The maximum that capitalist development in the third world has done so far is to include the middle tiers of the economic classes in those that have access to some basic services. The working class does not count.

Mustafa Kamal had the right age, face, persona, lingo, tact and skill to become instantly popular with the affluent and not-so-affluent but educated urban middle class in Karachi and beyond. Undoubtedly, he worked hard but was fully aided by a persistent image-building campaign run by his party. For instance, we heard for a long time that he was adjudged the second best mayor in the world. What was not discussed, however, was who was considered the best and how credible were the adjudicators.

I recall from my childhood that the Jamaat-e-Islami had also created a patriarch and messiah for Karachi, Abdus Sattar Afghani, during the Gen Zia’s regime. Afghani was the mayor from 1979 to 1987. He was equally respected in those times by the same classes who respected Kamal two decades after. And Afghani also enjoyed a propaganda machine run by his party supporting him all along. He was called Baba-e-Karachi (Father of Karachi). Besides, like Kamal’s municipal administration got ample resources from Gen Musharraf, Afghani got his resources from Gen Zia to deliver what they were able to deliver.

I am not at all suggesting that the two of them were not good mayors. But I am saying that in a resource constrained and hugely politicised country like ours, if good administrators at any level are not provided with financial resources and political backing they cannot deliver. Otherwise, Captain Fahim-uz-Zaman or Farooq Sattar were no less efficient than Mustafa or Afghani by any means.

Ah! Some of us continue to be old fashioned in trying to understand what is happening around us. Who speaks of class as a category of analysis these days, leave alone asking for the rights of the working class in third world countries? The only reference to class in vogue is that the ‘middle class’ should lead and run the country and its institutions. Here, it is used liberally with educated, professional social and cultural class of people in mind, not essentially the class of people based on economy and access to resources and services.

But since I remembered in my last column the Baldia Town Garment Factory fire of 2012 where 258 women and men workers were burnt to death or asphyxiated, it is important to mention now that Anees Qaimkhani was one of the co-accused among those who were allegedly responsible for arson and murder.

But apparently just like the PTI is a laundry for old elite politicos in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, upon entering which they get cleansed of all stains and blemishes, disparaging the MQM and expressing your dissent has the same effect for politicos in Karachi and Hyderabad. Anees Qaimkhani was the right-hand man of the MQM supremo for a long time. He was principally executing the party decisions made in London or at times in Karachi. He cannot be absolved easily from his role in the making of and translating into action the gory decisions that were made by his party.

The MQM remained a militant party that could play havoc with the life, property and security of people in Karachi. Qaimkhani was a part of its core. Perhaps, if he had been like Dr Asim Hussain who refused to defect his party loyalty or personal friendship with Asif Ali Zardari, Qaimkhani would have ended up in jail the moment he had returned to Karachi five days back. But that did not happen. He dodged the questions asked by reporters on Baldia incident and understandably denied any involvement. In the meanwhile, the news of the FIR and the JIT report on Baldia being doctored started circulating. This must be clarified by those responsible at the earliest so that trust is restored in these investigations.

One former MQM minister and a sitting member of the provincial assembly, Dr Sagheer Ahmed, has also defected. Many more may also defect in the coming weeks. The interesting thing is that those who defect are not only telling us that they have answered the call of their conscience but also that, while remaining in power and a part of MQM, they as individuals were never involved in any corruption or violence.

People are supposed to believe them. Should they or should they not believe these people as far as their personal conduct in the past is concerned is up to the people of Karachi and Hyderabad in particular, and those of Pakistan in general, to decide. But the things that the defectors say about the MQM leader are known to all who mattered in the past or matter now in this country. There is nothing new in what they have said or claimed.

Karachiites know very well what the wrath of the MQM was like if someone posed even a wee bit of a challenge to their political power or caused a minor hindrance in their collection of extortion money. Also, after being encouraged and resourced by one military dictator in the 1980s, MQM leaders and workers were termed secessionists and traitors during the brief democratic stint in the 1990s, later to be adopted again as a protégé by the other military dictator in 2002.

Post-Gen Musharraf, Altaf Hussain has openly invited the military to take over and set the course right again on many occasions. Therefore, we know well that the MQM’s leader is certainly not a democrat if he is not enjoying absolute power in a democracy. Democracy works for him if it brings him power.

However, the defectors of today were not just ideological workers or plain apologists of Altaf Hussain but the doers, leaders, executioner of party decisions and the real men at the helm of affairs. So why is this happening again? Unfortunately, neither does the MQM learn nor do the powers that be in Pakistan change. If not entirely, a major role is played by our military in making these decisions. But the formula is simple.

The MQM has to completely shun the politics of violence. No one is a taker for that any more. And at the same time the establishment of Pakistan, including its security agencies, have to stop playing tricks and hatching conspiracies to curtail the MQM’s power. It is known to all that the MQM supremo has completely lost the plot. Our state institutions must concentrate only on eliminating militancy from the party and let the party evolve its own leadership from within.

Email: harris.khalique@gmail.com