The Pakistani Spectator

Pakistan is faced with a lot of problems today. Therefore it is of utmost importance now, that Pakistani Nation should not be forgetful, short- sighted, and it must have closure over all major issues encountered by it. Just recently, Pakistan’s print and electronic media provided hype over ‘Jinnahpur scandal’. A lot has rightfully been said about Breg. (r) Imtiaz, PML-N, and Karachi ‘cleanup’ operation in early 90s. But we are missing on something very basic and most important in this episode, and that is MQM. Let us all agree at this moment that ‘Jinnahpur’ was a fraudulent scheme, yet, it is time that we should analyze MQM fully, in the light of history, to analyze the impact that it will have, over the imperative regions of Pakistan.

Let us start from the time of British Raj. During those times, Muslims of regions of today’s Pakistan and Bangladesh experienced great deal of colonial oppression, directly from feudal class (developed and applauded by the British Raj in rural regions) and Hindu Pandits (in urban regions). Karachi, Dhaka and Lahore, the main economic hubs of these regions were dominated by these classes. The Muslims of these regions, though in majority, were not very developed socially, economically and psychologically. Muslims of regions like Uttar Pradesh, Madhiya Pradesh, Bihar, Gujrat, and (Indian) Hyderabad had been able to regain their lost social and emotional stature with the help of movements of political, educational and religious awakening due to factors like university in
Aligerh, All-India Muslim league and widely accepted religious institutes of Bareli and Dyoband. Such positive effects were a bit slow to reach to subjugated poor Muslims of Western Punjab, Sindh, Pashtun and Balochistan regions, and the ‘communist’ poor Muslims of Bengal. And obviously, having Muslims in  majority, these were the regions which later constituted Pakistan, after sub-continent’s partition.

After creation of Pakistan, Muslims from regions of Uttar Pradesh, Madhiya Pradesh, Bihar, Gujrat, (Indian) Hyderabad and West Punjab migrated to here. Due to the reasons mentioned above, it turned out so, that this immigrant class was most skilled to run major affairs in governance of then-Pakistan. Thus, the governance establishment of Pakistan moved in hands of Mohajirs in very early stages of Pakistan.

More and more Muslims from those Indian regions kept coming to Pakistan during the years to follow; Mohajir Establishment became very strong during late 40s and then 50s. This was the time when masses of newly born Pakistan were highly patriotic and this was the time, when Mohajir governance establishment could have strived to lift it above the regional grievances in the days to come. But Mohajir Establishment seemed to tyrannize masses by strictly controlling all governance resources, which were already scarce. Thus Pakistan’s foundation stone was set wrong. The Political and governance establishment failed to
achieve even basic objectives for the newly born state, like constitution of the land, general elections, educational and medical development, and political harmony.

During these years, Mohajir establishment forgot to consider a very important point – the Punjabis dominated Army, which was developing strong contacts with world’s capitalist powers of Europe and USA. The Punjabi dominated Army gave first blow to Mohajir establishment in late 50s, by imposing Army rule with Ayub Khan’s coup. Most unfortunately for Pakistan, sole objective of Army-led tyranny was to find a balance of force-and-resource between Mohajirs and administration achieved this objective with great success in 60s. Ayub also took a precautionary measure to shift federal capital from Karachi to Islamabad, to ensure this balance in days to come. The powerful political leaders of East Pakistan (Bangladesh of today), feudal of Sindh, and strong tribal leaders of Baluchistan and NWFP were left out of this equation. Though the tribal and political leadership of Baluchistan and NWFP could not react strongly over this continued repression, but the political leadership of East Pakistan and newly arising political leadership of Sindh showed immense reactions over it. We can see the results of presidential elections of Pakistan in mid 60s, and mass-mobilization against government in late 60s in Dhaka and Karachi. This was time
when local forces of Baluchistan and NWFP joined hand with Socialist Political leadership of East Pakistan, while, Punjabi rural-areas masses showed their support to new socialist Sindhi dominated leadership.

Situation went out of control of Mohajir-Punjabi coalition establishment, and Ayub Khan’s regime had to go. The Mohajir-Punjabi coalition establishment safeguarded itself by brining army in power again, under the rule of Yahya Khan. First general elections were held in Pakistan in the beginning of 70s. Anti-establishment forces were ‘permitted’ to win elections, by Mohajir-Punjabi coalition establishment, reason for which seems as if establishment was looking for a system to include these anti-establishment forces in power-sharing, by giving them political end, while establishment would continue to assume its old role. But the question was: how to take army out of scene. ‘Disintegration of Pakistan’ was the answer to this question. Such conspiracies-based
rogue policies of establishment led to fall of Dhaka, and Mr. Bhutto was put in driving seat. He turned out to be too smart for establishment, and with the help of his huge mass-support, he worked really hard to uproot this Mohajir-Punjabi coalition establishment. But what happened then.

He ended up making a new governance establishment of Punjabis and Sindis, as these regions were his essence of power. This new equation threw Mohajirs out of equation! For the first time since creation of Pakistan, that Mohajirs joined the oppressed class. This new establishment tried to psychologically dominate Army too; taking plea of fall of Dhaka, but it was not an easy game. Army over threw Bhutto regime, and started off to re-define establishment as per its needs, by taking sindhis off establishment. Mohajirs were taken back on board, but Zia- regime couldn’t afford to let them have free hand in establishment, learning from past experiences, while at the same time, it couldn’t also let go of Mohajir element, considering their influence on Karachi and their useful experience in the corridors of power. Therefore, taking the argument of local issues that Mohajirs faced, the Punjabi- army based establishment, pushed them to politics instead of giving them same space in governance which they used to enjoy during Ayub’s era. Mohajirs, while seeing not much option, grasped this opportunity to jump into politics. This was late 70s, and Mohajirs first option in politics could have been Jamat-e-Islami, and establishment also pushed them to join hands with JI. But mohajirs were smart enough to make a decision better suited fot themselves. They had learnt their bitter lessons with JI from Al-badar and Ashams of 1971’s East Pakistan. So Mohajirs took partial advice from Punjabi – Army establishment, jumped into politics on the ideology of Mohajir nationalism in early 80s, and took the brand name of ‘Mohajir Qaumi Movement’ – The MQM!. Zia regime used MQM to limit PPP’s role in sindh, majorly in Mohajir- dominated areas of Karachi and hyderabad. Although it is a well established reality that, MQM was never a ethnic or racial faction, it was
a group which came into being under the push of establishment, for struggle of economic advantages resources distribution, under the umbrella of Punjabi – Army establishment. Soon MQM became popular within Mohajir class which had been oppressed for last few years. But MQM played it smart. Mohajirs had served in establishment for decades and knew the ‘rules of business’ very well. They went on to expand their power on areas of their control to a level of totality.

They made use of lessons learnt from the early years of PPP and Awami lague in late 60s and went on to establish their main power within young generation,
equipping them with ‘necessary tools’. As expected, the experiment was successful, and MQM readily established its localized state within state in their towns and regions. They confronted Punjabi, sindhi, Baluchi, and later on, pathan communities in regions of Karachi over several issues of economic advantages. Meanwhile MQM had its limitations for expansion, due to its localized agenda and representation. When Zia regime was over in late 80s, and political forces gained back power, and to MQM’s misfortune, Sindhi based PPP and Punjabi based IJI (JI inclusive) were main players of new game. Over the next decade in 90s MQM’s main objective remained to be ‘gaining of economic advantage’.

MQM had now started to realize immense economic importance of Karachi for federation. By early 90s MQM had established vital international contacts in Europe, USA and India. Huge amount of weaponry was brought into Karachi, via ‘waters’, apparently to answer the weapon power of Pathan community. An ethnic blood bath followed. Army, based on intelligence information of ISI and MI, indicating MQM’s international contacts, started off actions against MQM. The army action proved to be just another episode of same blood bath, and didn’t bring a cure to karachi’s problem. Despite various army, Rangers, and ‘Punjabi
police’ actions, Karachi would remain a wound for Pakistan for days to come, to which salt could be added ‘to taste’ anytime. Meanwhile, MQM’s coming in and going out of power kept on almost in every era of PPP and PML-N for quick periods. Another army period hit Pakistan as in Musharraf’s form. This regime seemed to have one of the points of its agenda, to bring MQM up. From late 90s till today, MQM has been trying to establish as federal power, with presence in places other than Karachi and hyderabad. Their new brand name is ‘Muthida Qaumi movement’ for this cause. To sum up, MQM has done exactly the same catastrophic mistakes on a localized level in Karachi regions, what Political powers like PPP and various PMLs have done on a larger scale!

In the end, I would just emphasize on one point. It is very easy to come up with lots of conspiracy theories, or even factual proofs of involvement of ‘external hand’ in our corridors of powers, but please note one thing from the account above. It is our weakness that is exploited by so-called ‘external hands’. We make such establishments or anti-establishments in our system, which serve as push-buttons, which let the ‘external hand’ to operate over our fates! Even today, if representatives of Punjabi – Army establishment, political powers of PPP, PML-N and MQM, pressure groups of PTI and various religious –
political parties, and separatist groups of NWFP and Baluchistan understand just one point, that they are all the ones who provide weak points to be exploited by allied – capitalist evil powers. Pakistan may (and will, InshAllah) survive this test of times, but these so called establishments and gangs won’t. On the other hand, if all these powers stand together, and forget their ethnic, political, racial differences, eradicate all weak points, exterminate all establishments/anti- establishments and start to evenly distribute each and every resource among all people of Pakistan, Pakistani nation may forgive their previous mistakes. Corridors of power of Pakistani governance have to decide today, whether they are with Pakistan or against Pakistan. The Nations will not wait for an answer for long.