KARACHI : Devoted to peace, committed to retaliation
By Humair Ishtiaq
KARACHI, Sept 28: In the wake of recent statements coming out of Nine Zero, headquarters of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, alleging that the Pathan community is out to sabotage peace in the city, the provincial leadership of the Awami National Party stresses its “rich history of practicing (the) politics of non-violence by its founding fathers.”
How relevant – or irrelevant – that history is, or can be, to contemporary politics can be gauged by the fact that almost in the same breath, it talks of armed retaliation being the “only logical course of action” in case violence is unleashed against the community.
Talking to Dawn, Sindh ANP President Shahi Syed and General-Secretary Amin Khattak voiced brotherly sentiments for the Urdu-speaking people of Karachi, but their tone got slightly less-brotherly when the MQM was introduced into the equation.
“We concede that Karachi is the city of Urdu-speaking people. We do not have a problem with that. But we certainly have a problem with the MQM’s intention to politically deny our existence in the city,” said Shahi Syed.
Mr Khattak went a step further. “Though it has changed its nomenclature from ‘Mohajir’ to ‘Muttahida,’ the MQM practically still behaves like an ethnic set-up.”
Reacting specifically to the MQM’s allegation about his party chief Asfandyar Wali being entrusted with the task of inciting violence in Karachi, Mr Khattak simply asked: “entrusted by whom?” He argued that it was the MQM that was part of the establishment and “an ally of the general.” The establishment and the general, he said, could entrust the MQM, not the ANP, with any task “good or bad.”
With a population of about four million in the city that is concentrated, among other areas, in localities like Keamari, Sohrab Goth and Quaidabad, which, in the words of Shahi Syed, control the exit and entry points into and out of the metropolis, the community’s thinking pattern matters, or should matter, to those whose job it is to maintain peace in this city of over 160 million people.
Just as the MQM, PPP and Jamaat-i-Islami do, the ANP leadership also sees trouble ahead. The line of reasoning behind their perception, however, is exclusively their own.
“The MQM will be under pressure in the forthcoming elections because it has not performed well despite being in the government for five years. The party knows that too, and that is why we fear poll-related violence in the city if enough security is not provided both inside and outside the polling stations,” forewarns Mr Khattak.
On its part, MQM’s Punjabi-Pakhtun Organising Committee (PPOC) counters the diatribe, saying the ANP itself is under pressure because “a large number of Pakhtuns are joining the MQM ranks.” Khursheed Mukarram, who jointly heads the PPOC with Charsadda’s Sardar Khan, says the switch is actually pushing the ANP to the brink, and “the day is not far when it will be nothing but an ethnic pressure group.”
Established in 2001, the PPOC has gathered momentum only in the last few months, more so after the infamous May 12. Today, it has spread its network to 60 of the 178 union councils in Karachi. Though it may not have many registered members, the activity certainly is gathering pace. Many believe it is being done to counter any chance of a revival of the notorious Punjabi Pakhtun Ittehad that had taken on the MQM back in the black years of the 1990s.
Though there are some indications that the dormant PPI is waking up from its slumber, the party does not have any functional office yet. All efforts to get in touch with Malik Ayub, who is supposed to be its lone leader, failed as his cell phone was constantly switched off. Even the text messages sent his way bounced back.
According to PPOC estimates, however, there are about three million Punjabi settlers in the city. The effort naturally is to have them on their side rather than being with the four million Pakhtuns.
Ironically, the Sindhis seem to be out of any emerging equation – political or otherwise – in a city that happens to be the capital of the province of Sindh. The PPOC counts them to be less than a million, but Ghulam Shah, Secretary-General of the Sindh United Party, differs big time, insisting there were at least four times as many.
Regardless of the numerical strength, however, Sindhis remain the marginalized community in the city, mostly inhabiting villages along peripheral areas like Malir, Hawkesbay, Manora and so on. Ghulam Shah, however, brings an entirely new dimension to the discussion.
“The situation is already tense in the city and Sindhi nationalist groups are keeping a close eye on the happenings. There are many among them that need a conflict for their own political survival and would jump into the fray at the first opportunity. If that happens, these villages will once again become the armed dens that they were during the Sindhi-Mohajir riots in 1988,” he said while stressing the need to calm down the political temperature in the provincial capital.
Shahi Syed of the ANP agrees, urging everyone to work for long-term peace in “this beautiful mini-Pakistan,” but warning that “every action will have (an) equal reaction” and that “any hanky-panky will be retaliated.”
Talking to Dawn a few days ago, Deputy Convener of the MQM Central Coordination Committee Dr Farooq Sattar had also echoed similar sentiments, stressing that the party had always abided by the Constitution and would continue to do so. “Any retaliation would come only if the MQM is pushed to the wall,” he had said.
With both sides being earnest in their desire to maintain peace, and equally firm in their decision to retaliate, the hapless citizens of Karachi hope that the MQM and the ANP, instead of firing verbal salvos at each other, will have some sort of ‘no-first-strike agreement’ to pre-empt any third-party instigation in the days ahead. If nothing better, Karachi deserves at least this much.
