Another quick somersault by Mr Altaf Hussain

Civilian govt is the best for Pakistan: US By Our Correspondent Saturday, 28 Aug, 2010 http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/national/civilian-govt-is-the-best-for-pakistan-us-880

Suddenly Altaf Hussain “opposes” Martial Law:) and supports Zardari too: Saturday, August 28, 2010, Ramzan 17, 1431 A.H http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/aug2010-daily/28-08-2010/u43724.htm

VIEW: Altaf Hussain’s martial law balloon —Imtiaz Alam
Sunday, August 29, 2010 http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20108\29\story_29-8-2010_pg3_4

Building upon his ethnic appeal among the Urdu-speakers of Sindh, Altaf Hussain created a subservient power structure, backed by his armed loyalists, who are under orders to kill those who dare to defy the leader

The martial law balloon floated by Mr Altaf Hussain, the MQM chief, has burst before it could even take off, thanks to an overwhelming reaction against it across all political divides, except for a media group and a bunch of beneficiaries-in-waiting. Among all democrats, Mian Nawaz Sharif and his PML-N deserve laurels for standing firm in defence of democracy and against any kind of military intervention. Quite curiously, the call for a military intervention was not addressed to the army chief, who is a professional Potohari soldier and not worthy of being “patriotic” in Mr Hussain’s eyes. The statement is tantamount to treason for fomenting a split in the army leadership and subverting the constitution. What is behind Altaf Hussain’s martial law balloon?

Mr Altaf Hussain’s provocative call to “patriotic generals” to clean up corruption and in fact pack up the democratically elected incumbents his party is in conflictual partnership with, and Mr Nawaz Sharif’s tougher rejoinder to his mimicry in defence of democracy, however flawed it may be, brings into sharp contrast the opposite pulls of our power structure and polity. This country has seen such insidious calls for martial law, and always on the pretext of getting rid of “corrupt and inefficient” politicians, with and without the blessings of the khakis in the past — some actually materialising in one after another takeover by the military rulers that always ended in greater disasters than whatever good they had promised as our ‘messiah’.

The urge for a messiah is as old as the helplessness rooted in the hopeless serf-feudal relationship that Mr Hussain is so fond of ‘fighting’ against while, ironically, reproducing it politically the way he lords over his political bandwagon as a feudal estate. Interestingly, Mr Hussian is himself a prototype messiah, whose political birth was midwifed by Amir-ul-Momineen General Ziaul Haq to create a countervailing urban force from among the Urdu-speaking settlers against the ‘feudal’ Bhutto’s PPP, which has to its credit that it fought against all military rulers for the restoration of democracy. Despite being a secular party and standing against religious terrorism, the MQM’s rabblerousing to “hang all the corrupt by any means” plays into the hands of the Islamic extremists who vow a bloody cleansing in a Taliban/Khomeini-style move. Even quite knowledgeable people are carried away by the fascist notion of taking a reprehensible course of mass-killing, much like the lumpen proletariat had performed on the streets of Paris during the French Revolution or the Taliban have done in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The MQM was created on the aggressive chauvinist appeal to Urdu-speakers to maintain the privileges of the salariat and frustrate the aspirations of the growing middle strata from among the deprived nationalities—Sindhis, Pashtuns and Baloch — while overcoming its rootlessness. Quite opportunistically, it became an appendage to successive military regimes to consolidate its ethnic power base in urban Sindh against the ‘feudal’ (read rural) Sindhis. It manipulated one party/ethnic group against the other to grab a greater share at the cost of the Sindhis and joined those feudal cliques who have had always sold the interests of the Sindhis. Building upon his ethnic appeal among the Urdu-speakers of Sindh, Altaf Hussain created a subservient power structure, backed by his armed loyalists, who are under orders to kill those who dare to defy the leader (Quaid ka jo ghadar hai, maut ka haqdar hai).

The MQM has remained in power by hook or crook for most of the time of its existence, especially during the martial laws of General Zia and General Musharraf (both quite ‘patriotic’?). The gravest worry for the MQM is that its so-called numerical ethnic majority in Karachi is under serious threat with radical demographic changes in the ethnic composition of urban Sindh. Most of the rural-to-urban migration is taking place towards Karachi. The outflow of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Pakhtunkhwa is mainly directed towards Karachi, resulting in ethnic tension between the Urdu-speakers and the Pakhtuns. Previous and recent target killings are in fact a battle for turf between the Mohajir and Pashtun mafias in Karachi, on the one hand, and to frustrate Pakhtun migration towards Karachi, on the other.

The havoc that the floods continue to cause, especially in Sindh now, has forced hundreds of thousands of Sindhi people from upper Sindh, including the poor and bonded labourers the MQM wants to emancipate from the yoke of the feudal landlords, to migrate towards Karachi for shelter. After Mohajirs have turned into a minority in Karachi, the MQM has become intolerant of any migration from anywhere, except fellow Biharis from Bangladesh. It has taken a “principled” stand against the migration of native Sindhis towards Karachi after having been uprooted from their native places, and has demanded the registration of the “homeless in their home”. Karachi has been part of Sindh since 1795, and our Mohajir friends are asking the natives for their permit. This has brought the Sindhi, Pakhtun and Mohajir coalition partners into an ominous conflict.

The call to the “patriotic generals” is to pressurise the PPP to stop the influx of Sindhis into Karachi, which will further reduce the numerical strength of Urdu-speakers. (It needs to be clarified that not all Mohajirs are in the MQM, not all Sindhis are in the PPP and not all Pakthuns are in the ANP). The fissures among the three coalition partners may lead to either the PPP bowing before the MQM’s demand to keep a new wave of Sindhis out of Karachi and lose its Sindhi constituency or the MQM going to any length to keep Karachi as its exclusive forte. But as the rural-to-urban migration grows and over a million Sindhis uprooted by the floods may prefer to settle in Karachi as their birthright, the Urdu-speakers may have to either contend with being a minority or make hell for whoever overtakes them. And obviously, the MQM will go to any extent to keep Karachi as its fief.

The bottom-line is that the MQM wants to retain its most privileged position that it had consolidated with the patronage of General Musharraf for nine long years. During the reign of Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim, the MQM was the most dominant player in Sindh at the cost of the Sindhis and the PPP. It suited the MQM to have pseudo-Sindhi partners than a majority-PPP. Over half a dozen times, the MQM has threatened to quit the PPP-led coalition on one demand or the other and the PPP had to beat a retreat to keep its reconciliation policy going. When Hyderabad was reverted to its erstwhile status by the PPP, the MQM forced it to revive three districts that were created by General Musharraf to give a majority to the MQM in Hyderabad. Similarly, it kept the posts of governor, chief secretary and DCOs in Karachi in its kitty and did not let the PPP-led government have any say in the affairs of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.

But, perhaps, the room to make adjustments is getting too cramped. The PPP cannot abandon the poor Sindhis from seeking refuge in Karachi, nor should have the MQM — as a matter of principle — opposed it. But politics is all about constituencies and the MQM is no exception. On this issue, the MQM’s salvo has backfired and did not get any takers among both the internal and external establishments the MQM is quite embedded with. It would not like to bet its assets at the wrong time and on a wrong issue. The PPP, in the meanwhile, should cover its flanks and extend an olive branch towards Mr Sharif, who is talking sense and behaving well.

Imtiaz Alam is Editor of South Asian Journal. He can be reached at imtiazalampak@yahoo.com

ROVER’S DIARY: Extra-constitutional politics —Babar Ayaz
Tuesday, August 31, 2010 http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20108\31\story_31-8-2010_pg3_4

If the MQM wants to fight against the remnants of feudalism, it should first join hands with the Left in rural areas and demand land reforms, minimum wages for the agriculture labour and return of agriculture land allotted to the generals to the landless peasants

Writing on the politics of floods in my article ‘Politics of floods and meeting the challenge’ last week (Daily Times, August 24, 2010), I had concluded, “Let us hope when the monsoon clouds thin out, the Pakistani phoenix proves me wrong and it rises from the rivers of the country. Amen!” But before I could finish my four letters ‘Amen’, Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM’s) supreme leader dashed my hope and threw in a highly controversial statement taking the politics of the floods several notches up.

First let us recap the main points raised in his speech before analysing them. He declared: “We will support any such move made by the patriotic generals of the army on the pattern of martial law to abolish the oppressive feudal and tribal political system of the country and rid the country of corrupt politicians.”

Speaking about foreign policy, Altaf Hussain said that the foreign policy of the country was not independent. We formulate our foreign policy by taking dictation from foreign powers. In contrast to this, our neighbour has a sound and effective foreign policy free from the taint of foreign influences.

He praised the army as an institution that has always been sacrificing for the country but also criticised it for sacking democratic governments at the whims of a few generals. He asked: “If they can dismiss elected governments to extend their rule and that of corrupt politicians, then why can they not take any action to root out the menace of corruption and abolish the oppressive feudal system from the country?”

Now let us discuss these three major points of Mr Altaf Hussain’s speech. The strong reaction against the suggestion of any ‘pattern of martial law’ has been outrightly rejected by all political parties and the media. Only the MQM website poll shows overwhelming support of the idea, but then it is not surprising because most of the participants in this poll are likely to be party workers, who visit the site every day. The good thing is that all other political parties in parliament and outside did not support the invitation to the army. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N’s) Saad Rafiq was honest enough to admit in a TV discussion that though like the MQM his party had supported military takeovers in the past, they have learnt from their mistake and would resist any move to impose military rule. Unfortunately, the MQM, which has a strong middle-class base in Urdu-speaking Sindhis, has perhaps not learnt any lesson from the history of this country. In the past, naïve — or should we say conniving — politicians have played into the hands of the army to destabilise an elected government and then to invite the so-called ‘saviours’.

Political issues should be settled within the framework of a constitution. The MQM has a right to leave the ruling coalition, gather support of the opposition and other smaller parties in parliament and submit a no-confidence motion. But it has no right to call for extra-parliamentary measures by an army that is supposed to be an institution working under the Ministry of Defence. Unless we reduce it to an arm of the government and cut out its rule, the country would not be able to develop as a democracy.

Undoubtedly the army has played an important role in the flood relief and rescue efforts, but this is in aid of the elected government because they have been commissioned to assist. The funds for these efforts are not coming from the heavens to the army, but are being billed to the government. But the credit for building an image that the army is doing relief and rescue work goes to its excellently managed public relations team lead by Major General Athar Abbas. And also to a great extent to our TV channels journalists who are embedded with the army. On the other hand, the civilian federal and provincial governments have not been able to take the credit where it is due. Instead of projecting the relief work that has already been done, their untrained public relations teams only project the visits of the VVIPs and VIPs to the relief camps.

So if Altaf Hussain has an impression that this is the time to attack feudal and corrupt politicians and invite the army because the image of the army is once more at its peak, he has misread the situation on the ground. I am saying this because the poor MQM leaders in the country, who have to justify an inappropriate statement of their leader, say that the statement was in reaction to the pain of the flood affected people being felt by their supreme leader.

The slogan that the feudal and corrupt leaders should be removed may sound attractive to the people who do not think of the long-term consequences of inviting the third force. What Altaf bhai needs to study is Ayesha Siddiqa’s Military Inc. to refresh his memory that post-independence day army generals who have been allotted agriculture land are feudals. They are a shoe-in to the true definition of feudal because the land was allotted to them in return for providing their services to the armed forces. Was that not one of the major factors in the creation of feudalism?

There is no denying the fact that there is a quasi-feudal system in southern Punjab and Sindh. But it is losing its feudal social grip not because any military ruler has contributed in the weakening of the feudal system. It is the Left in Pakistan that created the anti-feudal movement since the inception of Pakistan, and a feudal leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto amplified the message interestingly. So if the MQM wants to fight against the remnants of feudalism, it should first join hands with the Left in rural areas and demand land reforms, minimum wages for the agriculture labour and return of agriculture land allotted to the generals to the landless peasants.

On the issue of corruption, it should be remembered that all the generals who ruled this wretched country came in the name of weeding out corruption, and all left us with a new set of corrupt officials and politicians. Interestingly, the middle-class corrupt bureaucracy who guides the politicians is seldom called to the deck.

Lastly, the cack-handed statement blaming the political government for foreign policy was a surprise, as it came from a leader who knows well that all important foreign policy and national security decisions are made by the khakis he is inviting to take over. Can the rank and file of the MQM advise their leader to cool it please?! Such statements only damage the image of the party among saner people and make the task of defending him difficult by the party leaders on the ground. It also makes conspiracy theorists wonder whether he is market-testing for an army takeover.

And lastly to an ‘ahlay zuban’ Altaf bhai, may I remind you of Mir Taqi Mir’s:

“Mir kya saada hain beemar howay jis kay sabab;

Usi attar kay londay say dawa mangtey hain.”

(You are a simpleton Mir, the apothecary who made you ill;

You seek remedy from his son.)

The writer can be reached at ayazbabar@gmail.com

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