THE surge of allegations against the MQM continues, this time the BBC chipping in with claims that have been heard before elsewhere though perhaps not in the detail revealed on Wednesday. Two things in particular stand out about the BBC report alleging links between the MQM and the Indian state: one, that the claims were made by members of the MQM themselves; and two, that a list of weapons — many of the items being of a kind no peaceable political party anywhere could possibly have any interest in — has been recovered from an MQM property in the UK. The MQM response has been as predictable as it is inadequate: the few party leaders who were willing to brave the cameras and microphones on Wednesday dismissed all allegations and hinted at yet another unspecified plot against the MQM. With more claims and stories almost sure to follow in the days and weeks ahead, perhaps it is time for, first, the federal government to revisit its strategy and second, the MQM to do the same.

Thus far the PML-N government’s response to every new twist and turn in the widening and deepening case against the MQM has been either to reiterate its support for government agencies (if the allegations emanate from military-backed quarters) or to pledge to investigate (if they originate in the media or elsewhere). So it is hardly surprising that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif yesterday directed Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan to apparently investigate the claims made in the BBC report. If that is unsurprising, it is also thoroughly unacceptable: the BBC report suggests that at least one unnamed Pakistani official is aware of the alleged MQM-India nexus — should therefore the government not be informing the country about what it knows rather than pretending that it is in the dark and committed to finding the truth? Repeatedly in recent weeks and months, the interior minister has hinted at knowledge about the MQM’s alleged illegal activities — but always baulked at revealing what his ministry is aware of for unspecified reasons. Are Pakistanis forever destined to remain a population that its own elected representatives withhold the truth from?

The other aspect to consider here is the MQM’s inadequate response to the growing list of allegations against the party. The essential point is that none of the claims are particularly new or surprising: the MQM’s connection to violence and militancy; the MQM’s foreign linkages to various states; the MQM’s economic exploitation of the cities in which it rules — everything has been alleged over the years and it is commonly accepted that most of the allegations have at least a kernel of truth to them. What the MQM — which still has a large support base as the April by-polls- in Karachi showed — needs is an overhaul of its politics and internal organisation. It must clean out the worst elements, admit to a flawed past and lay the ground for a people-oriented future.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2015

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