For most Pakistanis residing outside the Sindh province, the Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM), has continued to attract curiosity as well as suspicion.
This is because a bulk of them have been somewhat slow to notice the many changes MQM has gone through. Their perception of the party still seems to be influenced by events frozen in a rather destructive period of the politics of Karachi.
Ever since its inception in 1984, MQM has evolved from being a confrontational political organ of Karachi and Hyderabad’s ‘mohajirs’, into becoming a no-nonsense and unambiguous advocate of secular politics and sociology.
Though allegedly engineered by the Zia-ul-Haq dictatorship to counter-balance the PPP’s influence in Sindh, MQM soon broke away from the dictator’s oxymoronic orbit, and by 1987 it had established its own distinctive stamp of authority and electoral might.
Then called the Mohajir Qaumi Movement, it rationalized its emergence as a mouthpiece of mohajirs whose political and economic interests it believed had been sidelined by ‘Punjab’s hegemony in the armed forces and the State,’ and by Sindh’s feudal-centric politics.
It also targeted the parties whom the mohajirs of Karachi had been voting for ever since independence, i.e. the Jamat Islami (JI) and Jamiat Ulema Pakistan (JUP). MQM accused both of them of ‘taking mohajir support for granted.’
Another important reason behind MQM’s eruptive appearance was the rapid influx of Afghan refugees who poured into the city of Karachi from their camps in the NWFP and Balochistan in the wake of the so-called anti-Soviet ‘Afghan jihad’ in Afghanistan.
Thanks to a corrupt military-civilian administration running this war from Pakistan’s side, with the refugees also came stacks of modern weapons and heroin. By 1986 crime in Karachi had quadrupled, and where there was once literally a single reported case of heroin addiction in the city in 1979, five years later Karachi had one of the largest populations of addicts in the world!
The stressful social and economic tensions that such a scenario generated eventually exploded into ethnic violence between the pathans of the city (who were accused of siding with the Afghan refugees), and the mohajirs – even though, ever since the 1960s, both the communities had been the twin engines behind Karachi’s once prosperous economic milieu.
This violent scenario saw MQM baptized by fire, giving its initiation a militant dimension.
Unfortunately, this is the dimension that has frozen itself in the minds of most Pakistanis outside Sindh. It got even more pronounced when (in the 1990s), the MQM clashed with the state itself. Buoyant by its electoral successes, it lost some of its bearings by allowing the first Nawaz Sharif government’s Machiavellian Sindh Chief Minister, Jam Sadiq Ali, to exploit MQM’s militant tendencies in his egoistical war against Benazir Bhutto’s PPP.
The cost of playing Jam’s street-fighting bidders, (sometimes against sensitive State elements), was a violent and long-running tragedy that haunted the MQM throughout the 1990s. Persuaded by intelligence agencies, the governments of Benazir Bhutto (her second) and Nawaz Sharif simultaneously conducted at least three major operations (backed by paramilitary forces) against the MQM.
Scores of MQM activists and policemen fell in bloody clashes that gripped Karachi across the 1990s, turning the city into a virtual battle zone. The city’s infrastructure and economy were in shambles, a situation that only recently started to be reversed (from 2002 onwards.)
It is a stunning case of irony that Karachi’s recovery is now being spearheaded by MQM’s popularly elected city government, first supported by Musharraf’s military-civilian set-up and now by the PPP-led coalition.
Another misconception about the MQM outside Sindh is that it grew its prominent secular wings under the Musharraf regime. Emerging from its student organ, the APMSO (formed in 1978), it is correct that most of APMSO’s founding members were former activists of the Jamat Islami’s student-wing, the IJT. However, by 1979, APMSO became a culmination of disgruntled IJT activists and progressive Urdu-speaking students who’d quit prominent left-wing student organizations like National Students Federation (NSF) to join APMSO. In fact, between 1978 and 1987, the APMSO was an important member of major progressive student alliances in Karachi’s colleges and universities such as the United Students Movement (USM) that also had student wings of the Pakistan Peoples Party (the PSF), National Awami Party (the PkSF), and Baloch Students Organization (BSO) as members. The USM became the main bulwark force against the Zia-backed hegemony of the Islami Jamiat Taleba (IJT), the student-wing of the fundamentalist Jamat Islami.
Till the emergence of the MQM in 1984, Karachi’s mohajir majority had been socially liberal but politically conservative (largely voting for the Jamat Islami). By the mid-‘90s, however, MQM had successfully stretched the liberal trend into the community’s political spheres as well.
Today the MQM operates as a well-organized liberal-secular expression of Karachi and Hyderabad’s middle and lower-middle-class sections. This does not mean that its militant tendencies have evaporated. As witnessed during the tragic May 12, 2007 violence in Karachi, MQM still maintains a militant streak – but then, so do the youth wings of the PPP, ANP, JI and PML-N.
But interestingly it is this streak that many Karachiites now believe may not be such a bad card to hold in the wake of the violent pressure being applied by armed militants across major Pakistani cities.
Does this mean that Karachi’s status as the last bastion of secular pluralism in Pakistan may as well be due to the secular muscle that the MQM flexes in this city?
The answer, most probably, is yes. But it is yet to be seen how this muscle shapes up against an enemy trained for ‘jihad’ and audacious suicide attacks.
It’s so cool, thank for your post
I enjoyed your article and have read the comments. What I want to say is that MQM is no longer an ethnic party the biggest example to me is myself. I lived in Karachi for 10years not once did any MQM worker or supporter said any thing to me. The truth is MQM did use ethnic politics in the start but they atleast never discriminated against anyone else. I hope MQM wins the general elections and sort out our country.
Not many people think the same way as you. That includes me.. sorry
Nice! more information please.
Nice post! more information please.
Great post !
Cool, will have to think about that for a bit..
another great post. i enjoy reading at your blog
Good news and bad news. I agree with most of the views… but im not so sure about the last issue though.
good blog
it’s very useful.
Thanks.
I think it is very interesting to know what others think of this. Thanks for taking the time to write this, continue the good work
Good article – plenty of food for thought.
This is a great blog post, I’ve learnt a lot.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks for posting. I’m really interested in this post and I’ve bookmarked this page
AH! This is the sort of thing I have been looking for. Great article. Doing some research for an article. You should add buttons to the bottom of your posts to social bookmarking sites.
I looked into what you talked about in this article and I had to convince myself that you were wrong. I looked up the info and it seems you are 100% correct in your statements. Because of this, I have subscribed myself to your RSS feed. Keep up the great work here.
Dear Sir/Madam,
I’m interested people comment on your page.
Some of them useful, some of them rubbish.
One way or another, your page is really nice, nice threads.
Thank you,
Mustafa Kelebek
Great Post. Subscribed to Your Feed. Thanks!
Great Post. Subscribed to Your Feed. THanks!
Thanks for this. Bookmarking your blog.
I finally decided to write a comment on your blog. I just wanted to say good job. I really enjoy reading your posts.
Well done MQM, next election is yours.
People need to bring good leader ship and it has to be within the society, not a foreign bred and brought.
We hope MQM will bring the promises despite all the negative propaganda against its leadership and its self.
It is time for change and change we must brought from within our society, pick, choose and elect fair, honest and hard working people, who can deliver and serve the people of Pakistan.
Save the country, save the nation.
Long live Pakistan, long live people of Pakistan.
See Karachi now. It is beautiful and developed than ever. Thanks to Mustafa Kamal. Thanks to MQM.
I agree with some of the comments made in the blog. MQM has used ethnicity. I have lived in different cities of Pakistan and feel that our identity is Pakistan not Punjabi or Mohajir etc. We are all Pakistanis and live in Pakistan. In this day and age, the term ‘Mohajir’ is a slap in the face. When Pakistan was created millions of Muslims migrated to Pakistan , every body was a mohajir at that time. It is a psychological identity that MQM uses to thrive their party popularity for the youth/people . Nothing else! People of Hyderabad, People of Karachi – YOU are NOT a mohajir anymore. YOU are as Pakistani as anyone from Punjab, Balouchistan and NWFP can be! Think of Pakistan not dirty party politics!! We need to leave the past grievances behind and look forward to the future.
I lived in Rawalpindi. I visit karachi very few times. My last visit in karachi was 2007. I had a chance to meet some MQM workers and leaders too. I am not going to give their name but they spent 3 days with me and show there different department. I was totally shocked and amazed that how organized this political party. I talked to the common citizen of karachi and they give me a positive response. I wish MQM to take over the Federal Government and implement their system which is pretty much organized like Pak Army. I wish Altaf Hussain to come pakistan but i sometime sacred over the killing of Shaeed Benazir Butto. Because Altaf hussain and his party is against extremism and terrorism same like PPP. But MQM has really good team to safe pakistan.
Thank you! Nice post. All very good points. There are a few sites that I?ve registered at in order to comment, but they are few and far between.
Excellent post, keep it up
wish the politicians would think like this… lol…
That was a great post..I love this site. Thanks
Excellent post, keep it up