23 May 2014

 

A November 2013 country report on Pakistan, prepared by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) for protection status determination purposes, states that “[b]ecause of the concentration of its membership in these areas [Karachi, Hyderabad and Nawabshah districts of Sindh], the MQM exercises considerable political influence in local political affairs, including for appointments to government positions, for example” (DFAT, 29 November 2013, p. 15).

 

A May 2013 article by the British daily newspaper The Guardian states that according to critics, the MQM is ready to use violence as a means of achieving its goals:

“[Altaf] Hussain founded the MQM in the 1980s to defend the interests of the Muhajirs, the Urdu-speaking descendants of Muslims who moved from India to Pakistan during partition, in 1947. They arrived in a city [Karachi] then dominated by native Sindhis and Baloch. The MQM's political strongholds are urban Karachi and Hyderabad, in Sindh province; it is at odds with Pakistan's Punjabi-dominated elite, Anwar [one of Hussain’s advisers] says.

But critics say that from its earliest days the party showed a readiness to use violence to fight for power. In the 1980s, when Hussain felt newspapers were giving him insufficient coverage, MQM supporters began burning all the city's papers before they could be distributed. ‘He forced all the media owners to come to the 90 [the party's headquarters] and beg his pardon,’ said Muhammad Ziauddin, managing editor of the Express Tribune. One paper protested by refusing to publish for one day.

Over the last five years, the MQM has proved to be an extremely troublesome coalition partner, temporarily walking out of the government several times and threatening to bring it down when it didn't get what it wanted. Critics say that when political blackmail fails, it turns to street violence. ‘MQM has the ability to dial up and dial down violence when certain political objectives are threatened,’ said Shamila Chaudhary, a senior analyst at the Eurasia Group.” (Guardian, 21 May 2013)

A June 2013 article by the US daily newspaper New York Times (NYT) similarly notes that while the MQM “prides itself as a liberal, secular political party and has opposed religious extremism and militant violence […], critics have accused the party of using brute force to maintain its influence over the city [of Karachi], the financial hub of the country” (NYT, 21 June 2013).

 

Reporting on the security and political situation in Karachi, “Banyan”, the Asia columnist for the weekly newsmagazine The Economist, states in May 2013 that “[p]olitical parties have close links to gangsters” and that “[t]he MQM is both the best-organised of the city’s political parties, and, as the one in power, seen as the best able to bully and intimidate its rivals“ (Economist, 19 May 2013).

 

A September 2013 article by the British daily newspaper The Times provides the following observations with regard to the MQM in Karachi and methods used by it to assert control over the city:

“Karachi’s most powerful political party has been described as a mafia and a cult. It is controlled from a fortified headquarters known as Nine Zero, the last two numbers of its leader’s home phone number when he last lived there two decades ago. […] The party, the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), has dominated Pakistani politics for 25 years and has been accused of maintaining control of the megacity through a lethal cocktail of extortion, killings and intimidation. […] A youth member of the party said that he was given a gun to intimidate opponents. The confession is a rare admission of the existence of the armed wing of the MQM, which has helped to maintain the party’s grip.” (Times, 12 September 2013)

In June 2013, the US daily newspaper Los Angeles Times similarly notes that “MQM’s critics contend that it maintains its grip on Karachi through a shadowy armed wing that uses violence to stifle political opposition” (Los Angeles Times, 22 June 2013). On the issue of the party’s armed wing, the Pakistani English-language daily newspaper The News International states in September 2013:

“When asked about the widely-held allegation that the MQM runs an armed wing to intimidate its opponents, [MQM leader Senator] Nasreen Jalil didn’t deny the existence of the armed wing. However, she said that the party felt it needed to defend itself. ‘I don’t know about the armed wing, but definitely we need to protect ourselves.’” (News International, 13 September 2013)

The above-cited June 2013 article by the Los Angeles Times also reports on the 11 May 2013 parliamentary elections in Karachi and cites vote-rigging allegations against the MQM, including intimidation of election officers:

“In Karachi, vote-rigging allegations against the MQM included intimidation and ballot-box stuffing. In [Movement for Justice party leader] Alvi's district, election officers never showed up to polling stations, either because they had been abducted or threatened by what Movement for Justice says were MQM workers or sympathizers. One voter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was afraid of reprisals, said he showed up to his polling station at a Karachi school and saw MQM workers with three large bags filled with what appeared to be ballots. While one of the men stuffed the papers into a ballot box, the voter said, the other workers stood around him in an apparent attempt to hide what he was doing. MQM officials deny that they took part in vote-rigging in Alvi's district or any other legislative district in Karachi. ‘I was the first person to go to the media and say there is chaos in NA-250,’ Sattar said, referring to the district's designation.” (Los Angeles Times, 22 June 2013)

In a report published in April 2014, Amnesty International (AI) refers to violence and intimidation towards Karachi-based journalists and law enforcement agents investigating cases against political actors and armed groups. Among the perpetrators were party activists of the MQM:

“Karachi-based journalists expressed anger and frustration at the failure of the state to protect them from attacks. A significant hurdle to the protection of journalists there is the fact that law enforcement authorities are themselves subjected to abductions, targeted killings and other abuse to prevent them from investigating cases against political actors and armed groups. According to Karachi police official figures, 166 policemen were killed across the city in 2013, while 45 police officers were killed in the city in 2014 up to 16 March. Police accuse the Pakistani Taliban and its affiliates for the majority of these killings, but the MQM political party has also been implicated in the killing and intimidation of the police force. The Supreme Court of Pakistan noted that as many as 92 policemen involved in operations against the MQM from 1992-1995 had themselves ‘disappeared’, likely as a result of revenge by party activists for abuses these officers allegedly perpetrated against MQM members during those years.

The MQM also stands accused of seeking to undermine efforts to provide justice in cases of journalist killings implicating the party’s activists. None is starker than the killing of young Geo TV correspondent Wali Khan Babar. On 13 January 2011, Babar was shot dead as he was driving home from work in Karachi. He had just filed his latest report on gang-related violence in the city and alleged links between a gambling syndicate and the MQM. The case outraged the journalist community, and under sustained pressure from journalists and public the authorities brought criminal proceedings against eight suspected killers soon afterwards. But the march towards justice for Wali Khan Babar’s killing soon faced significant hurdles. One after the other, police officers and witnesses involved in the case were assassinated, and the public prosecutors responsible for the case were forced to go into hiding after receiving death threats. Eventually the authorities were forced to move the trial out of Karachi.” (AI, 30 April 2014, pp. 28-29)

In July 2013, The Guardian notes that according to a figure often cited by the Karachi police, the MQM has killed over 200 police officers who were involved in former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s “anti-MQM crackdown”:

“In 2010 a Karachi-based police officer sought asylum in the UK claiming the MQM was threatening to kill him in revenge for his having registered a case against one of its members. The judge, Lord Bannatyne, granted asylum and in his judgment accepted that: ‘the MQM has killed over 200 police officers who stood up to them in Karachi’. The figure is often cited by the Karachi police themselves, and refers to those officers who were closely involved in Benazir Bhutto's anti-MQM crackdown, Operation Clean-up. It came in 1995, during Bhutto's second government. Unable to rely on the slow, intimidated and corrupt courts, which were always nervous to convict MQM defendants, the security forces resorted to hundreds if not thousands of extrajudicial killings of MQM activists. Many of the police officers responsible have subsequently been murdered.” (Guardian, 29 July 2013)

The Pakistani English-language daily newspaper The Express Tribune notes in an article of April 2013 that the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has accused MQM activists of kidnapping two of its workers under a police escort:

“In an emergency press conference, the JI Karachi Chief Muhammad Hussain Mehanti alleged that two of its workers, Aizaz Ahmed and Saad Ali Khan, were kidnapped by MQM’s armed activists under a police escort on Thursday night from Federal B Area Block 9. ‘They were taken to an MQM unit office near Taleemi Bagh and tortured. A police van, bearing the registration number PS-3191, escorted the kidnappers.’” (Express Tribune, 27 April 2013)

A June 2012 article by the Qatar-based TV news network Al Jazeera contains the following statements with regard to the police force in Karachi:

“The police, crippled by low numbers (there are only 32,000 police officers in Karachi) and political appointments, is in no position to fully enforce the law, said Sharfuddin Memon, an adviser to the provincial home department. ‘The police treats people differently, on the same crime, depending on who the suspect is linked to,’ said one former Karachi police chief, speaking on condition of anonymity. ‘And the militants and criminals have entered the rank and file of the political parties. ‘The parties use them for muscle, and the criminals use them for protection. It's a marriage of convenience.’” (Al Jazeera, 19 June 2012)

A September 2013 article by the Pakistani English-language daily newspaper Dawn refers to political appointments in the Sindh police force since the year 2002:

“The issue of thousands of political appointments made in Sindh police since 2002 prominently figured at the meeting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired last week in Karachi, which decided to launch a targeted operation led by Rangers in the metropolis against criminals. Based on documentary evidence collected and presented by the federal intelligence agencies, the meeting was told that during the governments – one led by the PML-Q [Pakistan Muslim League (Q)]and the other by PPP [Pakistan People’s Party] – well over 10,000 appointments were made in the provincial police department. From 2002 to 2007, the Sindh home department remained under the control of MQM. But after the 2008 elections, the PPP kept the department with it. Following this year’s general elections, when the PPP and MQM decided not to join hands in Sindh, they publicly accused each other of stuffing the Sindh police department with their loyalists, which became one of the major causes of bad law and order situation in the city.” (Dawn, 12 September 2013)

As reported by Dawn, the MQM has joined the PPP-led government in Sindh on 22 April 2014. The source further notes:

“The party on Tuesday received slots of two ministers, two advisors and a special assistant after joining the government. Two leaders belonging to the MQM, Rauf Siddiqui and Dr Saghir Ahmed, have taken oath as ministers. Faisal Sabzwari and Adil Siddiqui were appointed as advisors to Chief Minister Sindh while Abdul Haseeb was inducted in the provincial cabinet as Special assistant to CM Sindh. Although the portfolios were not allotted yet, sources said that Rauf Siddiqui will get portfolio of Commerce and Industries, Dr Saghir Ahmed-Health, Faisal Sabzwari-Youth Affairs, Adil Siddiqui-Tourism and Abdul Haseeb- Auqaf [religious endowments, remark ACCORD].” (Dawn, 22 April 2014)

According to The Express Tribune, “[t]he MQM was the PPP’s coalition partner in the last tenure but had quit the government just months before the general elections of 2013” (Express Tribune, 22 April 2014).

 

The following sources include information regarding MQM allegations that a targeted security operation against criminals and militants in Karachi has been diverted against its party workers:

 

The Pakistani English-language financial daily Business Recorder notes in February 2014 that the ruling PPP rejected MQM allegations of the targeted operation in Karachi being “discriminatory”, instead claiming that the operation is targeting “crime and terrorism”:

“The ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) on Friday dismissed the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) allegations that the ongoing 'targeted' operation in Karachi is discriminatory, saying that the main opposition party lacks a real perception of the poor law and order, which continues to plague the city for the last 30 years. The MQM's lawmakers during Sindh Assembly session again clamoured for immediate recovery of missing party workers whom they blamed the plain-clothed security officials have picked up. […]

He said the targeted operation continues across the board and law enforcers are carrying out their actions across the city. He said the operation was aimed at uprooting crimes and terrorism. On a point of order, MQM's deputy parliamentary leader, Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hassan, said Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali had assured his party that no plain-clothed officials will carry out activities against its party workers. Despite the assurance, he said, the party workers are being picked up by the unidentified officials on a regular basis.” (Business Recorder, 15 February 2014)

In a March 2014 article, Dawn cites an MQM party member as saying that the security operation in Karachi is not targeting Taliban militants, but the MQM:

“Although law enforcement agencies, and especially the Rangers, claim to have arrested several suspects belonging to banned militant outfits recently, leaders of political parties – especially the ANP [Awami National Party] and the MQM – and Pakhtun residents said that law enforcement agencies have not focused on the TTP [Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan] in the whole operation. ‘It is true that the ongoing operation has disrupted the network of targeted killers belonging to different political and sectarian groups and extortionists of different gangs, but the TTP-linked militants are still openly threatening and killing the people,’ said a Pakhtun trader in the Pathan Colony area. In interviews with Pakhtun residents of different areas, they claimed that law enforcement agencies largely apprehend innocent people during the operation while militants flee the area before the arrival of the law enforcers. […] The MQM has also similar reservations. Izharul Hassan said that the ongoing operation in Karachi was being conducted against the MQM and not against the Taliban militants.” (Dawn, 9 March 2014)

Geo TV, a Pakistani private television station, reports in February 2014 that the MQM in Karachi has called for a day of mourning in protest against what it terms the “extra judicial killing” of its party workers:

“Karachi: Terming the murder of party workers in police custody ‘extra judicial killing’, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has announced to observe a day of mourning on Saturday against the killings and appealed to transporters and businessmen to keep their businesses closed and transport off the roads. […]

Expressing fear for the life of the party workers who were arrested in the recent operation, the MQM leaders alleged that party workers were being targeted and the operation was being diverted towards the MQM.” (Geo TV, 8 February 2014)

A September 2013 article by The Express Tribune reports on the arrest of a former MQM Member of the Provincial Assembly (MPA) as part of the security operation in Karachi which the MQM claims “is being politicised”:

“The targeted operation in Karachi intensified on Wednesday with the arrest of Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s former provincial lawmaker, Nadeem Hashmi, over his alleged involvement in the murders of two policemen. After his arrest, parts of Karachi were shut down – and buses stopped running, vehicles were torched and ‘unidentified’ people forced shops to close down. […]

An FIR [First Information Report], No. 181/13, was registered under Sections 302 and 397/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act. However, it is said that the police have no evidence of Hashmi’s involvement in the murders. […]

The former MPA [Member of the Provincial Assembly] was moved to the Pirabad police station where MQM leaders, including Khawaja Izharul Hassan, also arrived. ‘There is a nexus of the Taliban and gangsters in Karachi who are responsible for the law and order situation. But instead of targeting criminals, the operation is being conducted against the MQM,’ Hassan claimed while talking to the media outside the police station. […]

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) appealed to the prime minister and the federal interior minister to investigate the ‘sabotaged’ Rangers-led targeted operation that is now being conducted against them. An angry Haider Abbas Rizvi of the party’s Rabita Committee decried the former MPA’s arrest, saying that Hashmi was implicated in a false murder case. ‘The operation is targeting only us. Since the operation has begun, our activists have been arrested and offices raided,’ said Rizvi at a press conference at the Khursheed Begum Secretariat. […]

The MQM had agreed to the targeted operation as the federal government had ensured the party that it would entail apolitical action against criminals, extortionists and banned outfits, he said. ‘But that the operation is being politicised.’” (Express Tribune, 12 September 2013)

 

 

References: (all links accessed 23 May 2014)

·      AI - Amnesty International: ‘A Bullet Has Been Chosen for You’: Attacks on Journalists in Pakistan, 30 April 2014

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA33/005/2014/en/bcaa2bbb-4926-4bd3-b7f9-a8411034f420/asa330052014en.pdf

·      Al Jazeera: Karachi: Pakistan’s bleeding heart, 19 June 2012

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/06/2012677393243533.html

·      Business Recorder: PPP dismisses MQM’s allegations regarding ‘targeted’ operation, 15 February 2014

http://www.brecorder.com/general-news/172:pakistan/1153588:ppp-dismisses-mqms-allegations-regarding-targeted-operation?date=2014-02-15

·      Dawn: Political appointees in police: magnitude surprised Nawaz, 12 September 2013

http://www.dawn.com/news/1042301/political-appointees-in-police-magnitude-surprised-nawaz

·      Dawn: Karachi: Enter TTP, 9 March 2014

http://www.dawn.com/news/1091918

·      Dawn: MQM joins Sindh govt, two ministers take oath, 22 April 2014

http://www.dawn.com/news/1101562

·      DFAT - Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Australia): DFAT Country Information Report – Pakistan, 29 November 2013

https://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/pdf/dfat-cir-pakistan.pdf

·      Economist: A killing in Karachi, 19 May 2013 (author: Banyan)

http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2013/05/politics-pakistan-s-biggest-city

·      Express Tribune: Of intimidation and threats: JI accuses MQM activists of kidnapping rival candidates, 27 April 2013

http://tribune.com.pk/story/541037/of-intimidation-and-threats-ji-accuses-mqm-activists-of-kidnapping-rival-candidates/

·      Express Tribune: Targeted operation: Karachi shuts down as MQM leader arrested, 12 September 2013

http://tribune.com.pk/story/603269/targeted-operation-karachi-shuts-down-as-mqm-leader-arrested/

·      Express Tribune: MQM to join Sindh govt, finally, 22 April 2014

·      a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/698780/mqm-to-join-sindh-govt-finally/">http://tribune.com.pk/story/698780/mqm-to-join-sindh-govt-finally/

·      Geo TV: Karachi shuts down as MQM mourns extra-judicially killed workers, 8 February 2014

http://www.geo.tv/article-137047-Karachi-shuts-down-as-MQM-mourns-extra-judicially-killed-workers-

·      Guardian: Karachi’s king over the water: Altaf Hussain of the MQM, 21 May 2013

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/21/karachi-altaf-hussain-mqm-pakistan

·      Guardian: Altaf Hussain, the notorious MQM leader who swapped Pakistan for London, 29 July 2013

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/29/altaf-hussain-mqm-leader-pakistan-london

·      Los Angeles Times: Pakistan assassination inflames political feud, 22 June 2013

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jun/22/world/la-fg-pakistan-karachi-politics-20130622

·      NYT - New York Times: Religious School Bombing Kills 14 in Pakistan, 21 June 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/22/world/asia/shiite-school-in-pakistan-attacked.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=1&

·      Times: Feared in Karachi, living in London, Altaf Hussain runs his party ‘like a cult’, 12 September 2013

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/asia/article3866591.ece