I said in a different context…
I know Altaf Hussain isn’t seen as a major leader within Pakistan, still, he too seems to agree with this point here
- Future of Indian immigrants in Pakistan remains under question mark
Staff Report
KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Altaf Hussain said on Wednesday the partition of the Indian Subcontinent in 1947 weakened the strength of Muslims and started the turmoil through which they were now passing.
“At present at least 400 million of the Subcontinent’s population are Muslims and the Partition divided them,” Mr Hussain said at a literary evening celebrated with Indian poet Manzar Bhopali at the party’s London secretariat.
He said no government in united India could have been formed without the consent of these 400 million Muslims, had they been united. “But the Subcontinent’s partition divided this huge strength,” he said.
“We cannot visit the graves of our elders,” unlike the Muslims who stayed in India, he said. He complained despite the passage of 57 years after the Partition, the future of the offspring of the Indian immigrants was still under a question mark, and they were being called by derogatory names.
Urdu-speakers who were born on Pakistani soil “are also not accepted as sons of the soil and their patriotism is doubted.”
Those who gave the most sacrifices for the creation of a separate homeland for Indian Muslims were called traitors, he added. He said the ancestors of Urdu-speaking people had left their homeland and migrated to Sindh, and now Sindh was their motherland.
“Sindh is our homeland and will strive for Sindh’s rights and will never migrate to another place,” he said.
“Bengalis were 99 per cent loyal for Pakistan and they were called traitors. G M Syed voted in favour of the resolution for the creation of Pakistan and he was also dubbed a traitor and enemy of the state,” he said. He went on: “Our ancestors created Pakistan and sacrificed hundreds of thousands of lives people to see their dream fulfilled, they left everything behind,” he said.
“Those who opposed the creation of Pakistan, supported the British Raj and were informants against the freedom fighters are given certificates of patriotism,” he said. “Our people were massacred for raising the voice for their rights and a state operation was launched against us, which killed more than 15,000 youth,” Mr Hussain said.
He added that areas in Sindh’s urban centres were cordoned and women and the elderly were subjected to insulting behaviour during the operation.
“We were not against Pakistan and are not against it now. What we want is that we should be considered equal citizens and the rulers should end injustices against us,” he said.
On the occasion, the MQM leader, who often tries his hand at versification, read out a poem he has written, criticising the Partition. Titled, “Ye kaisi taqsim hui,” it read