Muttahida Qaumi Movement

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Muttahida Qaumi Movement (Urdu: متحدہ قومی موومنٹ) generally known as MQM, is a political party in Pakistan founded and currently led by Altaf Hussain. It originated as an ethnic student organization in 1978 from University of Karachi [link]. The students movement later turned into an influential political party of Sindh. Later on July 26 1997, MQM officially changed its name from Muhajir Qaumi Movement to Muttahida Quami Movement. [link]

Contents

1 Political history

1.1 Background
1.2 Formation of APMSO
1.3 Making of MQM
1.4 1992 military operation
1.5 Changing name
1.6 Recent trend

2 Opposing views
3 See also
4 External links

Political history

Background

Muhajir are ethnic Urdu speaking Muslim linguistic group that migrated to Pakistan after independence in 1947. After the death of Liaquat Ali Khan, the rise of military intervention in governmental affairs and public sectors cornered Muhajirs.

Discrimination against Muhajirs began in 1958 when General Muhammad Ayub Khan seized the presidency of Pakistan in a military coup. General Ayub Khan allegedly eliminated Muhajirs from important positions in civil service, bureaucracy and local government. The subsequent administration of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto went on to nationalizing Muhajir businesses.

Although Muhajirs only constituted 7.44% of the Pakistani population but due to their higher educational levels and participitation in Pakistan's freedom movement. This created resentment in other ethnic groups of Pakistan, and in order to accommodate them, the administration of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto enforced a quota system at university and governmental level. Successive Pakistani governments tried to create balance through these job quotas in bureaucracy and higher educational institutions to help other ethnic groups to get their fair representation comparable to their share in the Pakistani population. This affirmative action by the government of Pakistan was resented by the Muhajirs, who preferred qualification and merit as the only criteria for jobs and admission into universities.

Formation of APMSO

In the context of aforesaid scenario, group of Urdu speaking students of University of Karachi established a student wing in June 11, 1978, named, All Pakistan Muhajir Students Organisation (APMSO) led by Altaf Hussain.

Making of MQM

In order to fill the political vacuum and bridge the gap between Urdu speaking faction and concerned authorities of government, APMSO restructured as Muhajir Qaumi Movement on March 18, 1984 [link]. NOW, the name is of APMSO is

1992 military operation

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In order to crush this insurgency in Urban areas of Sindh, an operation was launched by Pakistan Army in June 19, 1992. Altaf Hussain, the founder of MQM, had already fled to London 6 months prior to the operation in order to avoid prosecution, where he is currently under a self-imposed exile. Warrents were later issued for Altaf Hussain in a case related to the murder of Sindh governor, Hakeem Muhammed Saeed, in which 9 other MQM members were sentenced to death [link]. He was, however, acquitted in another case by the Sindh High Court from charges of alleged kidnapping and torture of an army major in 1991 [link]. There are still numerous other crimial cases pending against him.

1992 military opertion led to splitting of MQM into two factions [link]. The majority faction was led by Altaf Hussain, whereas the smaller faction, MQM (H), retained the original name, Mohajir Qaumi Movement. This split resulted in the bloodiest times of Karachi's history, when rival factions started targeting each other [link].

On November 1994, army was withdrawn from law enforcement duties in Sindh, to be replaced with paramilitary Rangers and specially trained police. To remove extremist elements from the party, Government of Pakistan adopted a policy of extra-judicial killing, instead of prosecution. Between 1995 and 1996, hundreds of proclaimed offenders with active association with MQM were extra-judicially killed by Rangers and police, sometimes in cold blood. (Pakistan Chronology 1947-1997, published by Ministry of Information and Media, ISBN 969-507-000-0)

The crackdown on MQM successfully eliminated terrorist elements, and restored order in Karachi, but the atmosphere in which it was carried out raised several human rights concerns. Primary reason cited by the then President, Farooq Leghari, on the dismissal of Benazir Bhutto's government in 1996, was also human right abuses committed during crackdown on the MQM.

Changing name

After 1996, surviving tough years of military operation, MQM moved away from terrorist elements, and at the same time emerged as a party representing poor Urdu speaking people of Karachi and Hyderabad. On July 26, 1997, MQM leadership in a hope to enlarge its base, and also to differentiate themselves from the other faction of MQM, changed the party name to Muttahida Qaumi Movement. Later in the next national elections in 2002, MQM emerged as the single most popular representation of Urdu Speaking community, demonstrating total rejection of the breakaway faction of MQM by the masses.

Recent trend

MQM initially targeted just the Urdu speaking people, who migrated to Pakistan after the independence in 1947. Since 1997, it has started to aim downtrodden masses at the national level, with a manefesto to improve low social and economic status of the Sindh. Although it has turned into a national political party, working in all major cities of Pakistan, its representation in non-Urdu speaking areas remains negligible.

MQM boycotted 2001 municipal elections but participated in 2002 national election and secured most of the urban areas seats in Sindh province. However, these election results are not considered to be representative of popular opinion because of widespread voting irregularities and the MQM's use of intimidation and coercion to keep candidates from MMA and PPP from winning many seats. The military government is also believed to have played a role in this since the election of PPP into the majority would have caused major problems to the current undemocratic status quo. Altaf Hussain supported, General Pervez Musharraf's U-turn on Afghan-policy after 9-11 attacks.

In August 2005, Haq Parast candidates, supported by MQM, won the municipal elections in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Mirpur Khas and many other cities of Sindh. [The daily Dawn editorial]

At present, MQM is an ally of President Musharraf in federal government but still has its own viewpoint on various issues including LFO, Kalabagh Dam and NFC Award. [link]

Opposing views

It is generally believed in Pakistan that MQM was created by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), main military intelligence agency in Pakistan. It was created to break the stronghold of Benazir Bhutto in her home province, Sindh. ISI believed that the ethnic tension between Sindhis and Muhajirs will distract Benazir Bhutto and her political party, Pakistan Peoples Party, from launching campaign against the military government of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Altaf Hussain was living in Chicago at that time and he was called to form a Muhajir ethnic political party with funds supplied by ISI.

The success of MQM in attracting support of Muhjairs both surprised and scared the ISI. This unexpected popularity helped MQM to chart its own independent political course rather than follow the ISI agenda. MQM went out of control of ISI and began a violent struggle for Muhajirs that turned Karachi into a virtual war-zone. In 1992, after months of extreme violence by the MQM, Pakistan Army launched a military operation to restore law and order in Karachi. The MQM gunmen were killed or arrested, armories and torture rooms were destroyed. The Army involvement is an indication of the seriousness of the crisis that MQM perpetrated in Karachi. Since the army operation and subsequent heavy activities of Pakistani police and paramilitary, the MQM has given up it's violent activities. However, it is widely believed that pivotal members of the MQM continue to maintain their active associations with local crime mafias.

External links

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