Speakers at MQM-P’s dialogue stress need for maintaining identity of Urdu-speaking community

One cannot describe the migrations as a result of the Partition of the Subcontinent without the mention of Karachi.

Federal Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar said this on Saturday night as he spoke at a dialogue organised by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) at the Arts Council of Pakistan in connection with the party’s celebrations to highlight the identity of those who or whose forefathers shifted to Pakistan from India after the Partition, and their legacy as the founders of the country.

Prominent social, political and literary personalities attended the dialogue that was moderated by media personality Aniq Ahmed. Umar, who belongs to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), said it was impossible to protect the ideology of Pakistan without Urdu. “My ancestors also migrated and came here [Pakistan] after witnessing the massacre. In order to keep the history alive, it is necessary to unmask the facts,” he said.

Television personality and artist Anwar Maqsood, former federal minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz central leader Miftah Ismail, former Federal Board of Revenue chairman Shabbar Zaidi, olympian Islahuddin, writer Shakeel Adilzada, scholar Dr Aliya Imam, television personality and former MNA Khushbukht Shujaat, Kamal Liaquat Ali Khan and grandson of Maulana Hasrat Mohani were among the other guests at the event.

Inaugurating the dialogue, MQM-P Convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said there were many regional cultures in Pakistan and among them, it was necessary for the descendants of the Pakistan founders to maintain their identity.

He said the MQM-P was celebrating the memory of migration. “Many of us are the ones whose ancestors migrated from India to establish Pakistan,” he added. A large portion of the population of Karachi and urban Sindh was made up of migrants who brought with them a rich cultural heritage, the MQM-P leader said, adding that the Urdu speaking people of the country were guarantors of the country’s survival and secure future.

He was of the view that the feudal system of this country had damaged the roots of democracy. Maqsood said that today, even 75 years after the Partition, it felt like the Urdu speaking community did not leave the homeland but the homeland had left them. “Urdu language is a river of love and it will come before everything. We will move forward by tearing down every wall.”

He said that Karachi had been deprived of air, rights and water. Mentioning the controversial 2017 census. Maqsood satirically remarked that if the women had also been counted with the men, it would have been better. He added that bad times always befell good people.

Ismail said that the entire country came to Karachi to earn livelihood and do businesses but the residents of the metropolis did not have any city to go to for getting employment. Zaidi was of the view that the migrants were facing hardships even after the passage of 75 years. “The quota system is great injustice to Karachi’s residents and a massacre of the merit,” he remarked, adding that the shopkeepers in the Liaquatabad area of Karachi paid more taxes than the entire Lahore. In a press statement issued on Sunday, the MQM-P coordination committee expressed their gratitude to the residents of Karachi who attended the dialogue.