“Just gonna stand there and watch me burn that’s alright because I like the way it hurts” were the opening lines from one of my favorite song. But how pertinent it felt under the current situation in my city of Karachi. These lines ideally fit our residents who have learned to enjoy the pain and misery and looks like that they have started to enjoy it . They stand there as onlookers as their rights which are given under the constitution of Pakistan are being taken away bit by bit as they are thrown into the whirlwind of a confused and disheveled leadership the city had over the last few weeks. 

As I drove towards the airport. I could see flags of PPP or Pakistan People’s party once a national party which has been reduced to being a Sindhi feudalist party and nothing more. I saw these flags along the pavements either declaring their victory or reinforcing themselves on the city as the main party of Karachi i.e. MQM looked disintegrated though the Pakistan leadership kept on chanting that they are intact but their certain overtures shows that they are in disarray and may be seen more in Dubai or perhaps in London soon the same city they all despise off lately and why not they expected so much of it. They hoped that the Metropolitan Police would send jail the party’s leadership sitting in London including their leader i.e. Mr. Altaf Hussein and perhaps forced their hand a little early. The case of which they all expected their rise i.e. Money Laundering Case was abolished and in fact the monies confiscated to be returned.

Now tell me this ; a Baluchistan government Secretary got arrested a few months ago and they found about PKR 730 Million from his possession i.e. roughly about 5.0 Mn British pounds and this doesn’t include the many properties he owned in other parts of the country including Karachi. Now someone said imagine if this kind of worth by a nobody in a short period of three years max. So Mr. Altaf Hussein who many claim ruled Karachi for over two decades though I don’t agree with it . Garnered less than 500 thousand British pounds in so many years though he ruled the richest city of the country for two decades as per many . Sadly , these amounts are by no means enough to his stature in my view unless this was the kind of money you would collect for your bad times. Now I never believed this accusation and now that Metropolitan Police abolished the case it got proved that for so many years the time and money of Pakistanis wasted on this non sense case and to dogmatized the leadership of Karachi. We live in a country ladies and gentlemen where the thieves who got out billions rule or sit in opposition but who pointed out this hegemony remains a criminal. No wonder we head towards the south. 

Since MQM has been mainly dismantled . PPP has started to rise its head in Sindh and Karachi. I have written many times in the past that the current PPP is nothing more than a curse as it is no more the PPP of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto but of those whose objective number one is to loot and plunder. Today, MQM feels the pinch of PPP policies as the current operation was directed towards MQM as PPP managed to keep its corrupt leadership protected and only those irritants eliminated whom they felt to be falling off their agenda. MQM in my view pays the price of trusting PPP in the past especially after the formation of government after departure of Gen Pervez Musharraf. Now the same decisions to reinforce come and haunt them. If they would have put up a strong opposition the worse which could have happened was an early operation as it goes on currently but they would have managed to take out the spine from the PPP’s rise & re embolden their political character. Now this party is richer with all the looted money and reinforced thanks to the borrowed time it got by misleading MQM & people of Karachi of its sincerity. The price which the party pays today. If you talk to some closed circles in the party leadership. It transpires that the current set of leaders claiming to be actual leaders of MQM in Pakistan were behind this musical chairs with PPP in the name of strengthening of democracy.

Farooq Sattar has been a key proponent in my opinion in the name of politics and today when all hell went loose his sustenance proves that his past decision or overtures were rightly judged as many in the party are in exile or in jail or underground but those in collaboration with him are now given back in the name of liberty which they enjoy today. Whilst , he has managed to play his game of political survival very eloquently but has caused the bigger damage to the struggle. 

I am still confused knowing the discipline of the party a bit that when Mr. Altaf Hussein speaks all the key leadership are supposed to be there but on August 22nd when the controversial speech happened and the unfortunate slogan was chanted which in my view was against the system running Pakistan currently not against the state. Nevertheless Mr. Altaf Hussein has withdrawn this sad slogan many a times since then. I wonder how come Mr. Sattar was not present over there. Why he didn’t intervene at that time incase he claims that he was there . Was it not his policies on the ground as he headed the operations of MQM on the ground that caused the frustration of the MQM leadership in the first place along with the community. He is trying to distance himself from the whole incident . How can he in my view as I feel confused as to how can he be not blamed for this partly or in the full?

Pakistan’s integrity is supreme and it lies in the prevalence of the constitution and the rights given to its citizens under it. Wasn’t the hunger strike being done from the same perspective ? Nothing legally wrong in a democratic state. As there was no Martial Law imposed as I last checked. The current agreement of the operation in Karachi in its current form was also lead by Mr. Sattar as per my information as he played a key role in driving down the thought of its neutrality. 

The question we must all ask ourselves is that is it neutral? The way various incidents in the city of Karachi were all implied on MQM as a party , on its workers and its supporters showed only one direction that is the elimination of party’s ideological thought who want rights for the masses. The unsung worker of the party who sacrifice is the worker which runs and owns MQM not in my view the elite which came up in MQM . I wonder how ? I wonder how come the local leadership blame others when they were the ones in command on the ground. Why it took them so long to do the sit in at the first place or denounce these policies?

None of these have resigned as yet . Though as per my limited knowledge many of the MQM legislators have submitted their resignations with the party but don’t come in the front out of the political pressures they face within the local leadership of MQM and some external forces. If I put the logic of benefitting from a crime . It would be Mr. Sattar who in my view has benefitted the most from twisting the incident of August 22nd. I wonder what did Aamir Liaquat knew as he walked off the theater of this new so called face of MQM.

The ground realities are different that the ground support of MQM are intact . They are with the original MQM which they know is the only one who would stand up for their rights. They keep quiet out of fear or out of consideration. Those who support the current leadership on the ground ask themselves as to what have these bunch achieved for the party and for them in all these years for being in power. How many jobs did they got for the workers ? How many got bailed out of custody from the jails? What rights achieved? How much money they earned themselves? You all really think that this lip service would achieve the due rights of people of Urban Sindh by this current face of leadership. I would rather sit out on these leaders as I feel that they are part of the problem as now it becomes clearer the reason about MQM’s ineffectiveness of their policies all this while. The perpetrators clearly visible. For me the rich elite of MQM has hijacked it to safeguard their investments and contracts. 

This has definitely created a new vacuum in Karachi’s politics and someone would need to fill it up. It’s clear that neither the two new off shoots the local MQM or as it is calling itself as MQM Pakistan or PSP are getting the right to represent the people of Karachi or its largest Muhajir community. If so neither of them managed to pull off one public rally till date like it was done in the past. Both the offshoots know the damage they have done. Now they look for bailouts. Hence the overtures to bring Gen Musharraf as their defacto leader. 

I would be surprised if that ever happens but since there is some noise as it looks like that there is some play happening. I recently said it my video log that Mr. Musharraf feels himself as a national leader and not a representative of a certain community. Even if he would agree to do so . He would nullify the representation of Sindh Urban’s cause as he being an ex Army has been sustained all these years by non Karachi support. I am sure he would always remember that how the current set of leaders now reaching out to him derailed people turnout as he returned to Karachi out of exile which got him so disappointed in Pakistan’s politics that he had to carry on depending on GHQ. He only used MQM during his tenure to control Karachi in the past and to consolidate the power in the center. I doubt that he would be the leader which Sindh Urban looks up to. If both of these i.e. Mr Sattar & Mr Kamal attempt in doing so would only end up disenchanting the Sindh Urban vote bank totally .

Those running the state would like to see an election in Karachi without the original MQM but I see the fate of these elections as it was in 1993 where they may see low turnouts and poor representation of true Sindh Urban mandate in any form of public representation. Is it worth it ; is this what the state wants , would need to ask of itself ?

At this time its key that the state unifies the republic. Address both its concerns from security perspective but also give the rights. Don’t force the mandate or political solutions. In my opinion the only solution is that the state forms a committee who reach out to all the players let them be in Baluchistan , Karachi, Sindh or KPK and align them and appease them and in return seek unity of the state and its integrity. They must rise above egos for Pakistan . I am sure if they reach out others would reciprocate or at least history would remember them as they at least tried. Anyways, I fear that egos are bigger in Pakistan and this dream of mine would never be achieved. But I am also sure if logical patriotism prevails someone would approach in this manner for a better Pakistan. We can’t afford fissures and we can’t afford forced solutions in a democratic state. As for the on ground leaders of Sindh Urban. I hope, they realize what they are doing as disenchanted voters don’t remain as onlookers eventually. Hoping for the best. Pakistan Zindabad!