Re: Human Rights Abuses by MQM - Altaf
Bhutto created a quota system in Sindh education institutions and jobs which favored the rural Sindhi population. That wud have been fine had it been for a short period and followed up by creating oportunities in rural areas, unfortunately that was not to be which led to rise in ethnic divide.
Then Zia sahib came into power supported by the religious lobby and extended that quota for another 20 years, to this day no religious party has opposed that unislamic, retrogressive, divisive tool for their selfish political motives. Had they opposed it things wud have been very different.
Its a human instinct to react to injustices case in point Hezbollah, fighters in Iraq, Vietnamese, Muslim League etc etc. Altaf Hussein arrived in Karachi from East Pakistan where he left 250thousand Pakistanis stranded, unrecognized by their govt sim0ply because of their skin color and language. Had they been Punjabi or Pathan does anyone believe they wud have been left there? Absolutely not.
Altaf started his career with the APMSO a student party opposed to quotas, bringing back the pakistanis stranded in Bangladesh. Timing was perfect, Zia had just taken power, there was no political discourse, national parties (PPP) was hounded by agencies, JI thugs were tormenting their opponents and Russians had invaded Afghanistan. Then came the guns courtesy our establishment which used Karachi as he hub for all illegal activity. With Klashinkoff came drugs cause someone had to finance those trades and with that culture came gangs. This was also the time when mohajirs suddenly realized they were being marginalized in professional education, govt jobs and rise of resentment. Add to that the influx of Afghan refugees into Karachi with their guns, drugs and no affinity with their hosts. What was supposed to be a small traffic incident led to a huge flareup between two communities and hundred were killed on both sides. Karachi was turned into a war zone with Mohajirs killing pathans and pthans killing mohajirs. Thus the rise of Altaf Hussein and his party. Since he depended on people who cud fight and be killed his rise to power came with violence and extremely dangerous people, but the common people of Karachi and Hyderabad had enough and demanded their rights, with no other party willing to support their cause they went with Mqm.
Much has changed since then, Pakistan establishment no longer wishes to pursue its culture of grooming homegrown militias (terrorists) cause its not kosher anymore. Thus the repackaging of political tools which includes Mqm.
One thing cannot be denied, Mqm continues to be the major political party in urban sindh, no matter how much the agencies have tried they have failed to break their votebank, hence the compromise and include Mqm in mainstream politics.
One can wrtie volumes bout our right wing parties how the have killed, extorted and brainwashed ppl in hating one another but that is not he subject of argument here, suffice it to say "Iss Hammam mein sub he nangay hein"..
Great post, I couldn't agree more!