FROM the irresponsible and the inadvisable to, now, the indefensible, Altaf Hussain’s political career appears to be in self-destruct mode.

In recent months, the MQM supremo has railed against the crackdown against militant and criminal elements in his party and for that he has been roundly condemned. But if many of Mr Hussain’s previous words were ill-advised and unnecessary, so was some of the harshest criticism that had been directed at him. Now, though, the MQM chief has gone too far.

Also read:Pressure mounts for action against Altaf

Perhaps Mr Hussain spoke out of desperation, perhaps he has finally cracked under pressure — but there is no justification for his diatribe over the weekend. Hyperbole and political rhetoric aside, to call upon outside powers to intervene militarily inside Pakistan — and rather astonishingly, for India to take notice too — against the state on behalf of the MQM and the mohajir community is preposterous.

The MQM leadership has tried to reinterpret and downplay what Mr Hussain said over the weekend, but so clear and direct were their leader’s words that no amount of verbal or mental gymnastics can obfuscate them.

Sadly, the attempt by the MQM to once broaden its appeal and go beyond communal politics — to go from mohajir to muttahida — has come to a disastrous end. It may have happened under extreme pressure and the MQM leadership’s claims of unlawful actions and extra-judicial violence by the state may have some truth to them, but the MQM has not handled the situation well at all.

Over the weekend, Mr Hussain could have, for example, called upon human rights organisations to examine his party’s claims and speak up for it. In recent weeks and months, the MQM could have helped the state purge from the party’s ranks the criminal and militant elements it is widely believed to be harbouring.

More generally, the MQM could have abided by a politics of inclusion instead of going into siege mode and trying to whip up communal tensions. As the legitimate and pre-eminent representative of the Urdu-speaking community in Sindh, the MQM has a responsibility to act as a bridge between communities and ethnicities.

The party’s leader chose instead to try and light a fire under old perceived communal identities. It is a sad denouement.

As ever, when one politician behaves badly, others cannot seem to help but add to the tensions. Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s rants — and they were rants — against Mr Hussain and the MQM were ugly and unnecessary.

As they took it upon themselves to decide who is a patriot and who is anti-Pakistan, they were echoed by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf when it submitted resolutions against Mr Hussain in the Punjab and Sindh assemblies. That is absurd as it is dangerous and such elements ought to know better. Hopefully, tempers on all sides will cool down in the days ahead.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2015

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