IMRAN KHAN AND THE MQM

By Mohammad Ali Khan 

It would perhaps be fair to say that most of the current supporters of MQM would be members of Pakistan Tehrik e Insaf if their party didn’t exist. It would perhaps also be fair to say that MQMs public support has remained static during the last two decades whereas PTI is a party experiencing dynamic growth during the last few years. The latest IRI political survey of Pakistan gives both these parties an equal level of public support.  The survey also gives Imran Khan a popularity of 38% while Altaf Husain stands at 11%. This particular statistic may be a reflection of PTI’s stature as a national party and MQM as primarily a provincial one.  

Imran Khan has generally admired the dedication, commitment, organisational skills and discipline which has catapulted MQM into the forefront of national politics during the last two decades.  But he is also mystified by Altaf Husain’s decision to stay away from millions of his suffering supporters. Imran believes that his presence in Pakistan would have been a boon to his supporters, and fears for Altaf Husain’s life are no different from the fears for any other political leader’s life. 

Imran believes that Altaf Husain’s decision to swear allegiance to the Queen by seeking, taking and celebrating British nationality raises many questions about his  patriotism and commitment to Pakistan. He believes that Altaf Husain and MQM could have provided an ideal platform for the youth of the entire country but their  overwhelming initial emphasis on ethnicity and digression into militancy took away that opportunity from them . As a result MQM’s public support has remained virtually frozen for the last twenty years. 

In their passionate pursuit of seeking legitimate rights for the Mohajirs of Sindh, Imran believes, MQM suffered and sacrificed tremendously, but failed to develop a national agenda and even the good points it had began to be seen in a tainted light. This was unfortunate as MQM was the first political force in the country since independence which had developed an enviable capacity to mobilise the middle classes of the country. Imran thinks that MQM’s appeal in urban Sindh remains strong but is unfortunately reflective of its almost permanent provincial status. This is a big disadvantage as it prevents the many talented individuals within MQM from rising on the national scene as national leaders and restricts MQM’s appeal as a National Party. 

Imran strongly believes that PTI offers a very strong alternative to the traditional supporters of MQM with the additional advantage of a truly national platform which extends to all four provinces. On the political front both MQM and PTI have stood

for a change in the status quo and have widely attracted the educated youth,  but MQM’s politics during the last decade has wavered on this front as it shifted its support from government to government and policy to policy weakening its moral stance. For example MQM organised a massive rally not long ago to protest the PMLN “insult” to the venue where Benazir was assassinated but has failed to organise similar protests over issues like inflation, unemployment etc. afflicting the poor. 

Inspite of its participation in the governments of the nineties and then the first decade of the 21^st century, Imran believes, MQM failed to address the real problems of its people. From an opponent of the status quo, MQM became a supporter and part of it. Lacking a clearly defined development agenda, MQM built impressive roads and flyovers in Karachi, but neglected to build hospitals and schools. It did virtually nothing to improve the urban transportation  for the poor masses of Karachi but managed to create the first “planned” slum of Karachi---the Mauripur Truck Stand. And hundreds of thousands of MQM supporters have remained jobless, struggling to survive. 

Since all its decisions are taken in London, Imran says, MQM failed to capitalise on the tremendous intellectual input which was available to it in Karachi , Hyderabad and other urban centres of Sindh . MQM’s decision making  mainly relied on political loyalists and routinely excluded highly qualified experts from within their supporters.

Yet to their credit, MQM has managed to retain the support of most, though not all, educated  Mohajirs. This may also be due to the fact that for more than a decade, MQM’s supporters were virtually denied exposure to alternate political platforms through various means including intimidation. 

 The MQM Haqiqi leadership has been kept in prison for more than a decade thanks first to MQM’s association with Musharraf and now to PPP. With Nawaz Sharif and Benazir in forced exile during the last decade courtesy their patron Musharraf, the MQM had a lot of space to maneuver.   Imran himself was also not allowed to enter Sindh for the last two years under pressure from MQM leadership who felt angered by his decision to take legal action against Altaf Husain in London. 

Imran believes that the events of 12^th May 2007 were a watershed in MQM’s history. MQM’s decision to oppose the immensely popular Chief Justice and support an extremely unpopular dictator and then its questionable role in the mayhem that took place in Karachi forced Imran to re- evaluate his view of MQM. He reluctantly concluded that MQM’s preference for expediency and the absence of its leadership from Pakistan will never let it play the national role it was capable of.

 Imran feels that there are certain unidentified and dangerous elements within the MQM who have unwittingly managed to drag the party into a lot of trouble by focussing on violence, once leading even Altaf Husain to offer his resignation. He believes that his legal pursuit in UK would help identify these elements. If MQM leadership was to purge such elements from the party, Imran feels, and its leadership returned to Pakistan, it can carve for itself a broader political future and prevent itself from fading out at some time in future.  

Imran is impressed by the hard work of MQM functionaries in different city governments of Sindh but feels that their development work has lacked transparency leading many to question the way money has been spent on different programs.

Imran believes that MQM ‘s leadership still suffers from a persecution complex and has sought to hedge this fear by seeking support from USA and UK. As a result the  MQM leaders are not allowed to criticise America or its policies .  

As Imran returned to Sindh for a day after an absence of two years he was encouraged by the tremendous amount of support he received from the Mohajirs, Pathans, Punjabis and Sindhis who were mainly responding to the stand he had taken on important national issues during this period. Imran and PTI seek to  capitalise on this support and pursue issue based politics in Sindh. They believe they can find common ground with MQM on many of these issues .