What's new

Karachi police arrest 'head of Indian RAW's terror wing' in Karachi

I was also thinking that. It's not that I support MQM, or Altaf. MQM have many many good people as well, BTW.
It is matter of record that at one time when Lyari operation was under progress and under the supervision of late Chaudhary Aslam both MQM and Lyari Gangs had more numbers of RPGs then Sindh police, and later some reporters even suggested that when Sindh police exhausted all of its inventory of RPG against Lyari Gangs Chaudhary Aslam personally requested to Hammad Siddiqui who was the incharge of Karachi Tanzeemi Committee of MQM to provide RPGs to be used in the operation
Our 3rd Generation is born in Pakistan now. Kis Muhajir ki baat kar rahey ho?
he was talking about Afghan Refugees
 
. .
Great news. Proud of our LEAs. Well done.

lossless-page1-1200px-Special_Security_Unit_Logo.tif.png
 
.
MQM is not an ethnicity. Correction needed accordingly.

Those who call themselves Muhajirs, shall also know the meaning. On other hand, no Pakistani should feel offended. The word Muhajir was used specifically by Altaf Hussain and everyone is well aware as what he did and exposed himself for thousand times. No Pakistani, be it Urdu Speaking or not; wouldn't affiliate with Altaf & his minions for their crimes against Pakistan & Pakistanis. This argument now should go down the drain and people with kneejerk reaction shall put it on hold.

On topic: What if I say that MQM has been dumping these weapons, at different locations especially during construction works/sewerage/drain systems for which very few & key people within organization knew the location being drawn on their particular maps. Do we forget how they built double walls within houses to store weapons in between and pack it till the time of call by the Bhai log. There is no doubt that Altaf Hussain and specific circle been working not just only for R&AW.
 
.
O Bhai wen sub the great's son was jawaan wat he did in Karachi neighborhoods is a horror novel! The way trading well established communities like bohris etc were rooted out of transportation business is just one instance how Indian migrated community was alienates n seeds were down back then when there was no NIC even made of the likes of altaf Hussain!

As far as Punjab is concerned, agar chare hi Diya ye point tou sunn lo aap k heartland mein SSP, lashkar e jhangvi jaise tanzeemein baneen jnho ne sectarianism ki intehaen paar krleen n recruits were more predominantly natives! Kya Punjab air punjabis ko bura bhala bolna shuru krden n exaxrlt play into the hands of anti Pakistani quarters n their propaganda?

Use it brains yarr for God sake!

Indeed truth is hard to swallow! Kammaaaalll hai bhaee...


I mean AYUB THE GREAT
Idk what are you talking about what sub son...transportation what. No body cares about minor local BS issues. That’s not a valid excuse for terrorism.

LeJ / Muhammad were Shia:Sunni sectarian Groups. They are not main stream, they never threatened the integrity of country. You argument doesn’t make sense.

MQM is not an ethnicity. Correction needed accordingly.

Those who call themselves Muhajirs, shall also know the meaning. On other hand, no Pakistani should feel offended. The word Muhajir was used specifically by Altaf Hussain and everyone is well aware as what he did and exposed himself for thousand times. No Pakistani, be it Urdu Speaking or not; wouldn't affiliate with Altaf & his minions for their crimes against Pakistan & Pakistanis. This argument now should go down the drain and people with kneejerk reaction shall put it on hold.

On topic: What if I say that MQM has been dumping these weapons, at different locations especially during construction works/sewerage/drain systems for which very few & key people within organization knew the location being drawn on their particular maps. Do we forget how they built double walls within houses to store weapons in between and pack it till the time of call by the Bhai log. There is no doubt that Altaf Hussain and specific circle been working not just only for R&AW.
BTW I heard MQM shipping and (NATO) missing Containers don, Babur Ghauri is driving fancy cars in Houston, Texas. From Shorab cycle to Mercedes, overnight US Green card and a fancy million dollar house.
 
.
BTW I heard MQM shipping and (NATO) missing Containers don, Babur Ghauri is driving fancy cars in Houston, Texas. From Shorab cycle to Mercedes, overnight US Green card and a fancy million dollar house.

you heard it right. Nobody wonders as how these weapons ended in Karachi. Actually, containers being looted in Balochistan by terrorists or elsewhere, do have good relations with other puppets of the same masters & supplied the weapons accordingly. Handler is same having different puppets for different roles under different banners. Not just the Babar Ghauri, many of them of direct beneficiaries of all this.
 
. .
Idk what are you talking about what sub son...transportation what. No body cares about minor local BS issues. That’s not a valid excuse for terrorism.

LeJ / Muhammad were Shia:Sunni sectarian Groups. They are not main stream, they never threatened the integrity of country. You argument doesn’t make sense.


BTW I heard MQM shipping and (NATO) missing Containers don, Babur Ghauri is driving fancy cars in Houston, Texas. From Shorab cycle to Mercedes, overnight US residency and a fancy million dollar house.
beneficiaries of NATO container scandal are not limited to just one part of country or or just province in fact MQM, PPP, Lyari gang, TTP and Baloch separatist and terrorist were also the beneficiary of NATO container scandal

just one example

further links to read and to refresh the memories of that scandals

- link-1
- link-2
- link-3
- link-4

However one need to keep in mind that Mauripur Truck stand of Karachi which is the main truck stand for logistic of goods from Karachi port was always remained political stronghold of ANP and PPP with the help of local Baloch and Pashtun criminal gangs and during that time even TTP had its active support infrausture in that area.
 
.
This is a false flag operation to divert attention from the real corona virus Crysis which completely out of control. In reality, India has no need to supply weapons to anyone inside Pakistan. There are enough 2nd hand weapons for open sale inside Pakistani markets to equip the state backed and state non backed actors of all types, hobbyists and militia for many decades to come at very discounted prices.


I am sure some of our forum members had the pleasure to engage in shooting some live ammo into the terrain or unfortunate small animal passing by.
 
.
This is a false flag operation to divert attention from the real corona virus Crysis which completely out of control
here comes the indian version of idiocy weapon and ammunition shown video and available in gun markets of KPK are hand made and not manufactured on military specifications .....
 
.
Aisa nahin hota bhai

azaad mulk hai. bol kay labb azaad hain.

whatever anyone says, his words are returned to him in this world to lick it off the ground.

inkaar karo to try karke dekh lo.

this is a natural phenomenon and won't get extinct. its human instinct.

ignore kar chill maar. chalta hai sab sath sath
 
.
we need to dive into our bitter history and admit the truth and understand the root cause of this problem and proper planning from the current Government and our establishment. The solution is Islamic Law with the agreement of all 23 religious agreements made in history and represents unit of Pakistani nation as Muslims plus our minorities. In the early years of Pakistan’s creation, Mohajirs constituted a privileged community, with state policies geared towards their benefit. Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan’s quota system, for example, was introduced to increase Bengali representation in the civil services but was designed in a manner that did not affect the Mohajir representation. Consequently, the Mohajirs dominated politics, bureaucracy, and business. Despite constituting only three percent of the population, they held nearly 21 percent of the jobs. By 1950, due to the quota system, the One-Unit Plan (which blocked all of western Pakistan into one province, West Pakistan, to counter the Bengali majority in the east) and a high literacy rate amongst migrants, the Mohajirs’ share in the civil service increased to around 47 percent. The Gujrati-speaking migrants from Bombay controlled seven of the 12 largest industrial houses. By early 1970s, Mohajirs held 33.5 percent of gazetted positions in the civilian bureaucracy, nearly half of the senior positions in public enterprises, and 11 out of the top 48 (23 percent) senior positions in the military.
Over the years, Pashtuns, Punjabis, and migrants from Afghanistan and East Pakistan (Bangladesh) settled in Karachi. The increasing population of the city resulted in competition for resources, and the Mohajirs found themselves at repeated odds with the Sindhis, Punjabis and Pashtuns. During the 1950s and ‘60s, Karachi began to witness restiveness between the Sindhis and Mohajirs, and the Mohajirs and Pashtuns.
The Mohajirs were politically represented by religious parties such as the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Jamiat-i-Ulema- Pakistan (JUP), while other groups preferred a number of different parties until the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) came into existence in the 1960s. Until the 1970s, there was no delineation between ethnic parties and political parties in Karachi. Therefore, the JI and JUP, while not based on any particular ethnic nationalism emphasized political-religious manifestoes, which the Mohajirs supported.
Ayub Khan’s arrival in 1958 set in motion the relative decline of the Mohajirs, especially after the capital of Pakistan was shifted from Karachi to Islamabad. Khan’s policies about administrative structure infuriated the community and tilted their support towards Fatima Jinnah, against Khan, in the first presidential election in 1964. Thus, Khan’s victory and subsequent clashes between the Mohajirs and Pashtuns in Karachi triggered a sense of alienation among the community.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s regime and the political platform of the PPP prompted the beginning of a new form of Mohajir politics in 1970. The the decade would prove to be an important one for the Mohajirs. Bhutto implemented a series of policies that the Urdu-speaking population viewed as an assault on their political and economic rights as well as cultural identity. These included the forceful retirement, dismissal or the demotion of over 1,000 Urdu-speaking officers; the introduction of an ethnic quota system in government job allocations; and the passage of the Sindhi Language Act, which imposed Sindhi as the official language in Sindh, with equal status to Urdu

Bhutto undertook a tour of the province—at the time governed by his cousin Mumtaz Bhutto—and announced a formula for reconciliation, whereby the knowledge of Sindhi or Urdu would no longer be a prerequisite for obtaining government jobs. The most ominous consequence of the language riots were the legacy of bitterness it sowed into Karachi and Mohajir psyche.
During this time, Altaf Hussein became an active member of student politics. Hussein was a young student at Karachi University, whose Urdu-speaking religious parents had migrated from India. In 1978, he established the All Pakistan Mohajir Student Organisation (APMSO) to contest the discrimination against the Mohajirs and provide a channel for the redress of their political and economic frustrations. Hussein put the blame on the first-generation and upper-class Mohajirs for not fighting for their rights sooner. Even as tensions remained high between the Mohajirs and the Sindhis, there was a steady of influx of Pashtuns (as Karachi offered better employment opportunities) and Bihari Muslim migrants (after the creation of Bangladesh), forcing more intense resource competition amongst the different groups. Mohajir entrepreneurs tried to retain control over squatter settlements as well as public transportation in the city, which enjoyed a Pashtun monopoly, fuelling ethnic conflicts and leading to riots in April 1985. Due to the competition between the Punjabis and Mohajirs, intelligence agencies forged an alliance—the Punjabi–Pashtun Ittihad (PPI)—to challenge the Mohajirs. Since then, the Punjabis, the Pashtuns and the Mohajirs have been engaged in ethnopolitical clashes over the control of Sindh’s infrastructure and resources

From 1978 to 1988, under Zia-ul-Haq’s dictatorship, the Mohajirs intensified their search for identity and mobilized their ranks along ethnic lines. As their sense of economic and political deprivation reached its peak, the slogan of “Mohajir Nationalism” was frequently raised, promoting the unity of Mohajirs under a common leader and party. In 1983, six days after Zia extended the quota system for another 10 years, the APMSO evolved into the Mohajir Quami Movement (MQM) on the platforms of countering Punjabi hegemony by working towards a fair share of jobs for Mohajirs in civil service and educational institutions. The militant approach of the MQM contributed to the group’s popularity. The party promoted a militancy that “managed to successfully weave subversive urban youth culture, with aspects of gender, leisure and global youth culture, into an ethnic-religious ideology of protest and revolt, thereby contributing to political crises that seriously undermine the legitimacy of the state.” MQM meetings allowed young men to assert their strength and display their masculinity while encouraging their Punjabi hatred. Hussein’s oratory and aggression made him a natural leader, and his following reached cult status with him being regarded as their ‘saint’.

During the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan at the end of the 1970s, the US-supported jihad against the former and supplied the Afghan Mujahideen with weapons and other resources. Karachi was the main point of entry, and according to many estimates, roughly half the arms destined for the western border with Afghanistan never made it to their destination. The city became an the underground market of drugs and arms and young MQM leaders captivated by weapons took advantage of the political situation at the time.

Zia-ul-Haq implemented oppressive Islamisation policies in an effort to create a monolithic Islamic identity for the country, based on religious parties and ideas instead of Urdu and the nationalist history of the Muslim League. As the Punjabi-dominated military grew stronger and scores of Afghan Pashtun began to settle in Karachi as a result of the civil war in Afghanistan, Urdu speakers protested fiercely, already threatened by the Sindhi and the Baloch. Riots broke out in Karachi in 1985 after a Mohajir's college-going girl was run over and killed by a bus being driven by a Pashtun. The MQM took this as an opportunity to target the Pashtuns, who had a monopoly on public transport in the city. The party further accused Afghan refugees of introducing guns and drugs in the city with the help of the Pashtun community and usurping Karachi’s economic resources.

Thus, the MQM manipulated and capitalized on the Mohajir community’s frustration to promote its ethno-militant agenda directly funded from RAW because this is a Golden opportunity for enemy . It mobilized the youth into a rigid hierarchical organizational structure, with the leaders in the supreme position. Many claims that the party was an outcome of Zia’s ‘political engineering’. According to JI leaders, it was created to neutralize their support in Karachi, while PPP leaders believe that it was created to ‘balance out’ their influence in Sindh. Regardless of their reason for formation, the MQM successfully whipped its followers into a frenzy, combining street nationalism with a cult-like status of the leader; this soon translated into electoral success, making the MQM the third-largest party in Pakistan in 1988.While the PPP won every National Assembly seat in rural Sindh (38), which included three of five seats in Hyderabad and one of 12 in Karachi, the MQM swept the rest (13). In the Sindh Assembly, the PPP won 70 seats in rural areas, while the MQM won 24.
In 1988, the MQM won the Mohajir vote in National and Provincial Assembly elections, becoming coalition partners with the PPP. At the national level, it received 5.2 percent of the votes, compared to the PPP’s 38.7 percent, winning only 13 out of the 207 National Assembly seats. This discrepancy of support shows how much the MQM, in its ethnic sub nationalist form, was inextricably tied to the politics of alliance-building in Pakistan, in its quest for political power. Given the PPP’s margin of victory, it depended on MQM’s 13 seats to maintain its parliamentary majority, making the latter the ‘kingmaker’ in deciding who would rule Islamabad. However, while the MQM and the PPP parties joined political forces, on the ground, Mohajir and Sindhi animosity grew. The two parties signed a 59-point agreement for their partnership—including some controversial points and vague, unreasonable demands—yet disagreements soon surfaced. In October 1989, the MQM leadership formally left the coalition, announcing its support for a no-confidence motion against the Bhutto government at the Centre. The end of the alliance brought about one of the darkest periods of violence in Karachi’s history.
In May 1990, the police raided the Pucca Qila area of Hyderabad, inhabited mainly by Mohajirs, after cutting off essential supplies for three days, including water. In the ethnic riots that ensued, over a hundred people were killed across the province. While the MQM blamed the PPP at the Centre, many suspected this to be an attempt to pit the MQM against the PPP, with military involvement. Nawaz Sharif’s Islami Jamhouri Ittehad (IJI) created by Hameed Gul our EX-DG ISI wanted to topple the Bhutto government at the Centre and felt that PPP’s provincial government no longer adequately represented the interests of urban Sindh. Consequently, the IJI actively wooed the MQM, and the two joined forces despite the inherent contradictions in their alliance, the Combined Opposition Parties (COP). The COP included the JI, which had lost its urban Sindh constituency to the MQM. The MQM’s focus on winning a share of central power damaged its legitimacy, as it formed alliances with parties with which it had ideological and political conflicts. Following the alliance, factionalism emerged in the MQM, ultimately leading to the creation of a a separate wing of the party.
I still remember those darkest days, MQM terrorists killed two Muslims in front of my eyes just because they were speaking Sindhi. and left me alive because My mother was Urdu speak but my father was Sindhi speak and somehow we managed to escape to Islamabad to save our lives.


The end of the Musharraf regime in 2008 brought about a reversal of fortunes for the MQM. During the general election, the MQM won 16 out of 20 National Assembly seats from Karachi and managed to insert itself into the PPP coalition at the Centre and at the provincial level in Sindh. However, it still had to contend with the ANP (a part of the PPP coalition) emerging as an electoral force in the city. The ANP’s traditional base was Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but it had made inroads in Karachi because of its rapidly increasing Pashtun migrant population. The PPP enjoyed a majority in the Sindh Assembly but chose to keep the MQM in its alliance for two reasons: a) the MQM’s capacity for disruption in the province; b) to balance out the PML(Q), which in turn was part of the alliance to balance against the MQM. The MQM, already isolated in national politics because of its alliance with Musharraf, simply welcomed the opportunity of retaining some power.

As is the case with politics in Pakistan, extreme bandwagoning by smaller parties around an ascending power broker eventually leads to the former reaching the top only to vacate their defensive positions and join the attacking side.This has been the MQM’s steady practice: while being a part of a coalition, their alliance with the PPP and ANP was unstable from the get-go. The MQM repeatedly attacked, blackmailed and protested the Asif Ali Zardari and Yusuf Gilani government, even as the PPP made efforts to appease the MQM to protect itself from being blackmailed by the PML(Q).

With the PPP in power, Sindhis dominated in Karachi, both in terms of violence and governance. The PPP devised strategies to ‘activate’ the Lyari (a small town in Karachi) vote bank, which had since lost its relevance. Through a settlement with criminals such as Rahman Dakait, the PPP indulged in MQM-style politics, allowing Dakait a free rein in return for votes and ‘street presence’ for the PPP. Dakait became the head of the People’s Aman Committee (PAC), founded in 2008, comprising the Baloch drug lords of Lyari. The PAC’s main aim was to wrestle turf away from the MQM and the ANP, serving as the PPP’s enforcer while it was in power in Sindh from 2008 to 2013. Initially, the PPP and the PAC shared a patron–client relationship, with the latter receiving support from the former in exchange for votes. However, the PAC soon began to present itself as a political player.

The MQM is suspected to have used the criminal Arshad Pappu’s group and the Kutchhi Rabita Committee (KRC) militants against the gangsters of the PAC, until they broke from the party in 2012. During this time of the PPP’s rule, violence in Karachi hit a new high, with militant groups collecting protection money in its neighbourhoods. Lyari became a hub for drug smuggling, weapons trafficking, extortion, kidnapping and robbery. With strong political differences between the MQM and the PPP, as well as foot soldiers in the forms of criminals that terrorised the city, Karachi witnessed the emergence of hundreds of well-armed and well-organised criminal gangs. Since most members of the PAC were ethnically Baloch, their increasing involvement in the city’s political–criminal nexus added another dimension to Karachi’s urban violence.

Eventually, the militancy in Karachi evolved beyond ethnic conflict to include sectarian and religious killings. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) established its base in the city, and an influx of internally displaced people migrated to Karachi, evicted from their homeland after the army’s military operations against them in the tribal areas of the northwest. This fuelled ethno-nationalism amongst the Mohajirs, the Sindhis and the Baloch all of whom had affiliated themselves with different political parties. Violence became an enforcement mechanism amongst political players, with each party having its go-to criminal organisation. Barriers emerged in different parts of Karachi, cordoning off neighbourhoods and creating no-go areas for civilians, which were controlled by militants and insurgent groups. Such groups used the city as their hideout and a cash cow, terrorising the local population with extortions and kidnappings to fund their activities. Political parties, in turn, grabbed this opportunity to make a point about how certain ethnic groups, which supported them, had been affected by the no-go areas, causing further law-and-order problems.

In 2011, the Supreme Court took suo moto notice of the violence in the city this is a turning point of our all establishment. It held several hearings to investigate the causes and perpetrators and declared that the violence was not only an ethnic war but also a turf war between different political parties. The Supreme Court further criticised the politicisation of the police force in the province. As an immediate solution, the paramilitary Rangers were empowered with special policing powers to conduct strategic operations and raids across the city, and arrest those suspected of involvement in violence. The political parties did little to resist the operation and abandoned the criminal networks they were supporting. This allowed the Rangers to eliminate all no-go areas in the city, as per the court order. The director-general famously described the security situation in Karachi as “worse than North-Waziristan Agency,” the tribal area where the Pakistan Taliban and other Afghan militants sought sanctuary.

The 2013 elections, which saw the victory of Nawaz Sharif and the PML(Nawaz), marked a turning point in the MQM politics. The PML(N) won 124 seats in the National Assembly and did not require the support of the MQM to form a government. Similarly, in Sindh, the PPP won a simple majority (65 seats) and formed a government at the provincial level without the MQM (which won 35 seats). The election also marked the emergence of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) as the new political force in the country. The party received 18 percent of the popular vote, i.e. 24 directly elected National Assembly seats, and formed the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. While the PTI could not defeat the MQM in Karachi, it polled a large number of votes from the heartland of the MQM, signifying a shift in the city’s politics.The PTI was able to cause a dent in the aura of invincibility that surrounds MQM. Out of the 20 seats in Karachi, the PTI secured one seat but was a runner up in 80 percent of the seats.

With his political influence significantly reduced, Altaf Hussein was put under increasing political pressure. Over the years, Altaf has been accused of murder, money-laundering, hate speech and incitement of violence, amongst other offences. During the Musharraf regime, over 72 criminal cases against Hussein were dropped; many of these were now reopened. After the election, Imran Khan targeted Hussein and blamed him and his party workers for the killing of a senior leader of the PTI in Karachi in the weeks following the election. He accused Hussein of being directly responsible for the murder and criticised the UK government for not acting against the MQM chief in London.The 2010 murder of senior MQM leader Imran Farooq in London also received renewed attention, with the investigating authorities questioning Hussein and his associates.

Soon after the elections, the Sharif government sought domestic political consensus for action to be taken against criminal gangs and terrorist networks. The army launched Zarb-e-Azb in 2014 to target groups such as the Pakistani Taliban and other foreign militant groups operating in the country. The operation prompted the Pakistani Taliban’s brutal attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar in December 2014, killing a hundred student. The attack lent further steam to ongoing army operations in Karachi, with the establishment seeing this an opportunity to go after the MQM and the militant–criminal nexus in the city. In March 2015, paramilitary forces raided “Nine Zero,” the MQM headquarters, recovering a large cache of weapons, allegedly stolen from NATO containers. This was followed by a series of raids of MQM offices across the city, and senior members of the party were taken into custody.

Disintegration
With Musharraf no longer in power, the military turned its back on the MQM. While the party once served the deep state’s political objectives, it had outlived its usefulness and had become more of a liability. I love my Army and support my Agencies we understand that our military’s objective against our enemy . This explains their historical tendency to oscillate in their support of different political actors.

The military operations and raids against the MQM further weakened the already damaged legitimacy of the party, forcing many senior leaders to abandon it. In March 2016, former major of Karachi and MQM member Mustafa Kemal accused Altaf Hussein of being an erratic bully with a drinking problem, disregarding the advice of senior party leaders, and taking money from Indian intelligence agencies. Subsequently, Kemal announced the formation of his party, the Pakistan Sarzameen Party (PSP).Many saw Kemal’s return to active politics as an ‘establishment-sponsored’ move aimed at further breaking apart the MQM. Soon after, a series of senior MQM leaders defected, many blackmailed and intimidated into announcing their intention of leaving the MQM and joining the PSP.

In August 2016, Altaf Hussein addressed his party workers protesting outside the Karachi Press Club against extrajudicial killings. Sitting in London, Hussein gave his now-infamous speech, criticising Pakistan.Not only did he speak against the country but he also called it “a cancer for the entire world … the epicenter of terrorism for the entire world” and called for the downfall of the country. After his speech, MQM party workers attacked a media house that had been critical of the MQM, resulting in the death of one person as police clashed with the MQM mob. Hussein’s speech was highly criticised, and he later issued a formal apology to the army chief.

However, Altaf’s outburst was seen as an unacceptable attack by millions of Pakistanis, especially for those in uniform. The establishment responded by shutting down Nine Zero, sealing or demolishing MQM offices across the city. The MQM’s second-rung leadership tried to distance itself from Hussein’s comments, while others left the party, unable to justify the comments and seeking their own political glory. Senior leader Farooq Sattar—the ‘good cop’ to Altaf’s ‘bad cop’—first tried to dissociate the MQM from Altaf’s comments but was later forced to sever ties with the party as a means of self-preservation. He founded the MQM (Pakistan), or MQM(P), to be distinguished from Altaf’s MQM (London).

Please accept my apology here , these are the facts from history Pakistan was for Muslims but history told us The Pakistani establishment’s main goal at this point was to split the Mohajir vote not Muslims vote. The Punjabi-dominated army was not comfortable with an ethnic party such as the MQM, alleged to have links with not only Western intelligence agencies but also India. They hoped that that Kamal’s clout as ex-mayor and the MQM(P)’s influence at the local and grassroots level would deal a fatal blow to the MQM. Historically, the military has always been uncomfortable with the PPP’s influence in Sindh and it hoped that the formation of a powerful coalition between the PSP and MQM(P) would defeat the MQM and the PPP, allowing new parties such as the PTI to emerge, which would owe their loyalty to the establishment. However, this was not the case. The MQM(P) split into two factions—PIB and Bahadurabad—due to internal squabbles over senate seats, deepening the wedge between the party leaders before the 2018 general election. Sattar, earlier wooed by the PSP, was now isolated, with many of his party members refusing to recognise his authority.

Consequently, the 2018 general election was disastrous not only for the MQM but also for Mohajir politics. While Altaf Hussein had called for a boycott of the elections, voters in the Mohajir areas rejected his appeal and voted overwhelmingly for Imran Khan’s PTI. The PTI bagged 14 out of the 21 seats in Karachi, winning the Mohajir vote and demolishing the PPP strongholds. The MQM was reduced to only four seats, compared to the 17 seats it had won in 2013. Both Farooq Sattar and Mustafa Kamal lost the two constituencies from which they were contesting, handing the Mohajir vote over to the PTI, a party Hussein had once warned. Ultimately, the MQM was brought down by internal squabbles, lack of funds, organisational weakness, the surge in non-traditional voters, and a damage to their legitimacy.

Who Truly Represents the Mohajirs?
The once politically powerful MQM of Altaf Hussein is now divided along ideological, political and personality lines. Broken up into various factions, the idea of a single united party for Mohajirs has virtually collapsed due to a series of organisational and ideological problems. For now, the movement can best be described as ‘diasporic’, since its leader has been in exile since the early 1990s, although he has been somewhat successful in steering the party from London, addressing rallies via video and telephone. However, currently, the MQM has little political strength and has lost most of its power over Karachi. The Pakistani establishment continues to slap on a series of treason and financial crime charges on Hussein, hoping that something will stick.

Meanwhile, Hussein’s absence from the country and continuous hysterics has created an urgency amongst the senior leaders to redefine the MQM without him. This has been difficult, since all the different factions of the party claim to be the true representative of the Mohajirs’ cause. The power struggle amongst Mohajir leaders, who were once on the same side, demonstrate not only Hussein’s failure to build an indestructible idea of Mohajir unity but also the establishment’s commitment to the 'divide and rule’ approach, ensuring that they remain the true power-holders in Karachi.

The MQM also has a number of international branches that, ironically, focus on shedding light on human rights violations against the Mohajirs in Sindh. Other international organisations run and funded by the Mohajirs are working to develop narratives that further the Mohajir cause abroad, organising protests and sit-ins. One such US-based organisation recently released a map proposing the creation of “Greater Karachi,” an autonomous region that would comprise urban Sindh and Karachi, with an independent parliament and elected chief executive.

While such political developments are on the rise, the population of Mohajirs in Karachi is steadily declining. According to some studies, the Pashtuns in Karachi will outnumber Urdu-speaking Mohajirs in less than 30 years. While the MQM has tried to reposition itself as a national party, its identity remains forever entwined with the Mohajir community and is geographically limited to Karachi and some areas of urban Sindh, e.g. Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas and Sukkur. Political parties see the city as a feudal landholding, equating access to land and municipal resources with political power. What this means for the political mobilisation of the Mohajirs in the future will be determined by whether the different parties can work together to represent the community’s interests.

Over the years, the MQM has been keen to expand the party’s social base beyond the Mohajir community and to be seen as a national party. Altaf Hussein has awarded party tickets to some Pashtuns, Punjabis and Sindhis, to contest elections in Mohajir towns. The party has also established offices in Punjab and rural Sindh. While this does not automatically mean that the MQM’s popularity is increasing, it does indicate that the party now acknowledges the limitations of ethnic politics and intends to contest elections as a national party, throughout Pakistan.

It is too soon to tell whether the Mohajirs will vote as a block for the PTI or whether their vote has been permanently split between MQM factions and other national parties. Whichever way the Mohajirs vote, either as a unified vote bank or divided, as long as Urdu speakers feel a sense of alienation and deprivation, the Mohajir identity will persist.

Conclusion
The Muslims who chose to migrate to Pakistan after August 1947, did so out of fear of being targeted in post-independence India. Their struggle for identity already existed when they were in India and, unfortunately, continued for generations after they moved to Pakistan. The Mohajirs initially constituted a privileged, elite and educated class, but their standing amongst other ethnic groups in Pakistan diminished over the decades. The stirrings of a Mohajir consciousness began in the early 1970s, prompted by the government policies that negatively affected their education and employment opportunities in Sindh. Over the years, demographic changes, ethno-political conflicts, militant and sectarian groups, and vested political interest groups coloured the Mohajirs’ view of their place in Pakistani society. The MQM emerged as a party that claimed to represent Mohajir grievances but soon became a criminal enterprise, diluting the legitimacy of the Mohajir cause.

The Pakistani establishment has projected the situation in Karachi as a law-and-order crisis stemming from a power void. However, the political parties and state law-enforcement bodies have been at the forefront of violent and criminalised politics, supporting terrorists, militants and criminal groups at times of convenience to control civilian groups, institutions and movements.Thus, the law-and-order situation is a direct result of the establishment’s refusal to address the grievances of different ethnic groups in Pakistan, such as the Pashtuns, Balochs, Siraikis or Mohajirs.

The question remains: What is the place for the Mohajirs in Pakistan’s current sociopolitical fabric? The answer lies where it always has, at the centre of Pakistani society. The Mohajirs remain a sizeable community—almost entirely urban and part of the working, middle class that is free from the influence of tribal chiefs and feudal elites. Yet, they continue to struggle to define their identity. It is now up to the community to evaluate whether ethno-political groups such as the MQM are the best choice for them, given the party’s extensive militarisation and fragmentation, or if they should put their trust in the mainstream parties that align with their cause, depending on the military establishment’s preference at that time.

The nature of Mohajir mobilisation has always evolved—from a nationalist group to an ethno-nationalist party, and later to an ethno-militant political, social and economic identity. As the boundaries of what constitutes Mohajir identity continue to unfold, it remains to be seen whether the community will hold on to its Mohajir identity (as descendants of migrants from India) or begin to identify as Pakistanis, assimilating into the nation-state. It is also too soon to tell whether the current political environment in the country will eventually give rise to an MQM 2.0, which might be more violent, demanding and challenging than Altaf’s MQM. Or should we stop all this and become true Pakistani Muslims and respect everybody interest. leaving my questions to everyone . are you mohjir , pastun , punjabi, siraki, hindko, sindh, balochi or we are Paksitani and muslims?
After reading this long artile , in my family and myself and friends are vicitmis of ethno vilonace ...my brother missed days in his jobs in Karachi due to violence in Karachi and one friend a bright nuclear scientist worked Atomic Energy in Pakistan. now they are facing establishment cold responses to bring them back on job . My question is should we bring them on Jobs to keep our assest in our hand before use by our enemy or we will play with them ethnic game rather than muslim
 
Last edited:
.
There is no difference between MQM London and MQM Pakistan. They both are the same thing. Entire MQM leadership should be thrown in jails and should be prosecuted for terrorism and MQM should be banned as a party.

But unfortunately our state is a soft state which will keep appeasing the likes of MQM or PTM.
 
. . .
Back
Top Bottom