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Rais Amrohi, one of the biggest brains among mohajirs, who was shot dead allegedly
by the MQM of Altaf Husain. |
I very well remember the evening when the doorbell of my rented home in Karachi Administrative Society, near Baloch Colony, rang. As soon as I opened the gate, the two youths barged in, one of them holding a revolver-- sector in-charge of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement or MQM. The other guy was the one from whom I had purchased a computer on installments, was good on payment and was at the time living with now my ex-wife, grand daughter of Shaheed Allah Bakhsh Soomro-- had Soomro not been assassinated in 1943 the nonsense named Pakistan would not have been created. It was shocking since there was no reason for such an armed banditry as I was good on the payments.
I immediately called the US-educated, rich mohajir businessman, Kemal Jaffery, who had helped with the deal and thankfully at the same time a cousin and my secret lover arrived. The mohajir businessman seemed to have told the MQM thugs they were messing with the wrong guy. So the armed MQM sector in-charge left without harming me or taking back my desk top computer.
The experience was quite shocking and was in fact one of the reasons that I left Pakistan. As a member of any ex-rated family, I was used to living in the past and thought none could harm the grandson of a man who was the most powerful guy in Karachi before the Partition Holocaust. My grandfather was the Amirul Qaum, leader of the Baloch nation, in Karachi in 1930s when the Baloch controlled the street power there. During the 1947 Partition Holocaust, Baloch were a majority in Karachi. At the time, Karachi was Paris of the East and one of the cleanest cities in the world at the time. Karachi also had a Jewish council member before the Muslim hordes had arrived from India in millions, in search of greener pastures – earning themselves the epithet of locusts or makkar.
But my nephew Mir Owais Bangluzai was not that lucky. He was shot dead in front of his gate in Garden East for opposing the MQM bhatta khori or extortion in his neighborhood. Likewise a community activist Nisar Baloch was shot dead allegedly by the MQM goons as he was defending open space for future generations. Just a day before this killing, Nisar Baloch has called the MQM the Maal Kamao Movement or
“freeloaders” movement and had directly accused the London-based MQM supremo Altaf Hussain for the land grab in Karachi. It was not only Pashtuns, Punjabis, Sindhis and Balochs who were sitting ducks before the MQM but the ethnic party did not spare even mohajirs who dissented: mohajir stalwarts like Rais Amrohi, former Sindh governor Hakim Saeed, and self-made cement tycoon Mohsin Siddiqui. Our event their own party ideologues and founding members like Azeem Tariq and Imran Farooq.
One of the deadliest day in Karachi history was May 12, 2007. It was on this date that former dictator Gen Pervez Musharraf allegedly used MQM goons to launch mayhem in the commercial capital of Pakistan for 24 hours, killing countless Pashtuns. The mayhem was meant to foil the rally of then chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry who was removed unconstitutionally by Gen Musharraf. In one incident in 2015 a factory was lit up as the owner allegedly refused to pay extortion money to the MQM, killing 260 people. All fingers pointed to the MQM in that case too. All these actions the MQM took as it enjoyed unconditional support of at least three army chiefs: Gen Zial Haq, Gen Asam Beg and Gen Pervez Musharraf. I remember Baloch patriotic leader Mir Ghous Bakhsh Bizenjo describe Gen beg as “a card holding member of the MQM.” But before that under general Ziaul Haq at a meeting in the posh neighborhood of Karachi near Hill Park, Altaf Husain came in his Suzuki van. Twenty-five rich men of Karachi were gathered there. Gen Zia called telephonically addressed the meeting and asked the gathering to generously support the MQM, according to Arshad Jalil, a friend of my former brother in-law. Each one of the industrialists committed half million rupees12.5 million rupees at that one meeting. Altaf Husain profusely thanked the gathering for siding with the “righteous” (Haq Parasts) but in the same breath warned the gathering that had they not given him the money, “Haq Parasts know how to snatch it from them.”
Around that time that I very well remember the interesting argument I had with Sindh intellectual Sadiq Burdi at a canteen outside the Sindh Medical College. The Zia government had decided to promote Altaf Husain and so Mahmoud A. Haroun, who was his henchman and who we used to call Uncle Mahmoud—he was a close friend of my uncles and his younger gay brother saeed A. Haroun was friend of my late dad—published his interview in The Herald. “Uncle Mahmoud” had successfully fooled my uncles to support him in his elections from the Baloch constituency of Lyari. published his article in The Herald. Burdi had argued that Altaf Husain was a liberal alternative to the Jama'at Islami and Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan who were quite popular among mohajir pockets. Just a year or two later the Pucca Qilla incident happened and the MQM goons pumped bullets into the butts of Burdi, who miraculously survived the gun attack. I did not visit Burdi in hospital as his predicament would have made me laugh.
I also remember in 1989 when on Eid day I had gone to meet the late defense minister Mahmoud A. Haroun and he said he was very happy that I was working for DAWN otherwise the Biharis would taken over the newspaper. However, just a month or two after that his eldest brother Yusuf A. haroun had called the DAWN newsroom and I picked up the phone. though DAWN never used to interfere in editorial affairs that evening Yusuf A. Haroun called and said a news item about MQM should be taken in a single column above the fold. That was the day I decided to quit DAWN.
I also very well remember the time when the MQM had put Lady Sughra Hidayatullah, widow of the first chief minister and first governor of Sindh, on its hits list. She was appalled at their thinking and vividly recalled the time when they came with parrots in dirty cages and the way she had taken care of them.
I am writing all this as even after all these events I had gone to attend a meeting to pay tributes to Professor Dr Zafar Arif, who was killed by the ISI. Whatever MQM has done pales in comparison to the evils of ISI. So as a political being when it comes to comparing MQM with ISI i will definitely side with MQM as the lesser evil. Had slain professor Dr Zafar Arif not been mistreated by the Pakistan People's Party, he might not have joined a party with such dubious background. But Saturday he must have been highly unhappy in his grave as speakers at the memorial for him Saturday appeared to be quite soft on the army and ISI, and only one of them directly blamed the ISI for the tragedy that has fallen on the "mohajirs," whose better and natural name is Hindustanis.
"We don't have any connection with any organization that is against Pakistan," said Matloob Husain, the second man of the MQM in USA.
Nadeem Nusrat, a senior leader of the party who parted ways with MQM chief Altaf Husain, told this correspondent earlier in the day Husain believes the establishment would give him space in the country's politics one more time.
Incredibly one senior leader Sabihul Islam appeared jealous over the massive protests following the death of social media celebrity Naqeebullah Mehsud in Karachi and compared it to lack of reaction on the killing of Prof Zafar Arif. As this writer knew the intellect of Prof Arif , who was confronting Ziaul Haq even when Altaf Husain was dancing to the tunes of the general, the assassinated professor must be churning in his grave over such a comparison.
The Hindustani Muslims, who have adopted the name mohajir, fought with their peaceful Hindu neighbors and then came to Pakistan in search of greener pastures, but were never accepted as true Pakistanis facing epithets as makkar, matarwa, panahgeer and what not. Mohajirs were the ones whose ancestors were responsible for division of Mother India by supporting TB-ridden Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who they to this day call Bani-i-Pakistan. They always served as "B" team of the Pakistan army and were the main protagonists of the baseless “ideology of Pakistan” premised on the so-called “two-nation theory,” i.e. India had two nations, one Hindu the second Muslim.
Under the tutelage of army dictator Gen Ziaul Haq the MQM had a meteoric rise in Karachi politics as the general wanted to use them against Sindhis. They fought pitched battles with almost everyone, beginning from Pashtuns, Punjabis, Sindhis and even Baloch just like they fought with Hindus in 1947.
However, in 1992 they faced a major crackdown and claim 20,000 of their folks were killed. Now the party has been split into multiple factions, both inside Pakistan and outside, under its delusional leader Altaf Husain.
The event Saturday began with Quranic verses and ended with Quranic verses, even though Professor Arif was a well-known atheist.
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