The Muttahida Qaumi Movement – MQM
When I moved to Pakistan in May of 2006, I was quite skeptical of the political parties in Pakistan. Having read the history, the various news articles and hearing ambassadors, business personalities and friends, I had concluded that politics in Pakistan is something I will never take part in.
Living in Karachi the political party that made headlines in the past was MQM. MQM according to people in 2006 was involved in “mobile snatching, land grabbing and other mafia styled activities”. At first, the information was nothing new, ever since I can remember, everyone I knew warns you of MQM, to stay away for some reason or the other. “There dangerous Asif, don’t get involved”.
I heeded to that advice and kept my political thoughts to myself.
My first encounter with MQM was in 2006 “Eid al-Adha” a muslim festival where we sacrafice animals for God to commemorate the willingness of Ibrahim who was ready to sacrafice his son for God.
So, every year we have a few cows and goats for sacraficing and their skin which is worth a fair amount, how much I am uncertain. Anyhow in the area where I lived, K.D.A. Officers Society a couple of boys, reasonably dressed approached me whilst I was standing outside and asked if I would be willing to donate the goat or cow skin to them. They presented themselves as workers for MQM and showed the reciepts that they give in exchange. I instantly said “no thank you” and I thought, no way will I help this Mafia organization. God knows they might come back, ask for other things. After I had said “no”, the boys said thank you, wished me Eid Mubarak and went on their way. A few hours later I saw the collecting skin from one of my neighbours so I called them over and donated two skins. What shocked me was the politeness and the manner of respect they had for an unknown individual. I don’t have no Gaurds at home and i’m not rich, infact I consider myself upper-middle class according to Karachi standards and right than and there, my image of MQM started to change.
I did some research, read about Mustafa Kamal, CDGK and Dr. Farooq Sattar. I started reading up more about the history of Karachi, the violence that erupted in the 80s and 90s, the reason why Altaf Hussain and his friends formed MQM, the student movement, the power of the youth, equal rights and above I tried to find out whether MQM is responsible for the torture cells, mobile snatching, target killings etc.
On the Internet I found no supportive evidence of any of the above accusations and having been very impressed with the construction of the bridges and roads by Mustafa Kamal, I decided that if I was to vote, I would vote for MQM.
May 12th 2007, the Chief Justice of Pakistan (whom I don’t hold in very high-esteem) was in Karachi planning to raise more support on his “unjust” firing by the then President Musharraf (who I think was one of the best leaders in Pakistan). Advised to stay at home, I spent the day with two friends watching the news channel for updates. EVERYONE predicted violence and violence there was. How much exacty is uncertain but what IS certain that EVERYONE was involved. MQM, ANP, PPP, PML-N, JI and you name it! Seriously logically speaking, when you have over one million people on the streets all comprising of different parties you are sure to have some kind of spark. The publicising of the attack on AAJ TV was the most stupidest news story out of all of them. They broadcasted for the entire duration CLAIMING to be under attack. Riight, your gaurd(s) with their rusted shot-guns prevented the onslaught right? WRONG. They were not even the target, infact all of them walked out quite all right but you see that was an important milestone in Pakistan. It was the start of “politics” as an entertainment!
The more I spoke to people about MQM the more I realised that they just hate MQM, they don’t have a real reason, if anything went wrong in Karachi the blame would fall on MQM, yet those very people refused to accept the fact that Mustafa Kamal IS part of MQM and his work speaks for himself. “No” they say, it was the previous mayor he made the plan. So my reply to them is that for the last few decades we have had planners, who have talked about the problem, talked about a plan, maybe drafted one, but never really executed it. Mustafa Kamal did the job and a job well done if I might say.
In 2008, the Youth Advisory Council (MQM) launched, I was invited by Ali Rashid to join YAC, take part. I joined the facebook group and was grossly disappointed. Some of the people there were filled with hatred for anyone non-mohajir. (For the record, my mother’s side is Punjabi and my dads side is Mohajir and I grew up in Switzerland, no idea what that would make me)
YAC started its attempt to unite the youth of pakistan, bring them on one platform to “discuss” problems. In 2009, I decided to join YAC as an executive and became part of the “Central Executive Committee”, I designed their website to what its present status is at http://www.mqmyouth.org and I attempted to set a direction and helped with strategy. I believed that there are many more qualified, educated people like myself who are interested in politics and who are interested in bringing about change.
The launch of YAC proved one thing, that MQM was keen to listen. In my very brief interaction with Dr. Farooq Sattar, I concluded that MQM is hungry for knowledge, subject matter experts, people who don’t understand politics but understand their respective fields. They want to bring in people like us, so they can ask us what we think about certain policies or what we think should be done.
That my friends in the three years I was in Pakistan, NO ONE ever asked and I had met a fair amount of people.
So today, although I am no longer living in Pakistan, I still support MQM. I’m not a die-hard supporter, yet I appreciate the efforts that their leaders undertake to make life easier in Karachi. The work Mustafa Kamal did, shortened my travel period to work by 10-20 minutes, depending on the traffic.
When I meet buzzing, energetic people who are over all dismayed with the current political situation in Pakistan, I tell them one thing and one thing only.
Pick a side.
Research what they all have to offer, read up on their past, their present and where possible their future than pick a side. Whether its PPP, PML-N or MQM, when people like us start picking sides, thats when the politics will change.
When asked by a reporter on ARY Digital to Sherry Rehman as to why she left politics she looked up, straight into his eyes and said ” No one decides when to leave politics, politics decides when to leave you”.
The future of Pakistan depends on the actions we as Pakistanis take, we can either ignore everything or we can get involved. If we ignore everything, than I highly doubt Pakistan will ever change and the political dynasties will continue, the corruption will grow and very soon we won’t have a Pakistan. If we take part, who knows where Pakistan will be in the next decade. Our first step should be to drill in our heads that we are Pakistanis first and everything else second!