Bulldozers move in as Pakistan squeezes MQM party

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan 

Security forces have demolished or shut over 200 offices belonging to a controversial Pakistani opposition party, detaining dozens of leaders and activists, officials and local media report.

The crackdown began earlier this week after members of the Karachi-based Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) stormed television stations, clashed with police and shouted anti-state slogans following an anti-Pakistan speech by their leader Altaf Hussain, who has been in exile in London for last 24 years.

Faced with a swift government response and nationwide criticism, the MQM immediately suspended Hussain – a longtime leader and party founder – and appointed veteran Farooq Sattar as its new head, declaring that the movement could no longer “afford” the burden of the self-exiled figure.

At least 20 MQM offices, which were reportedly illegally constructed on government land and in public parks, have been razed and over 180 shut in Karachi, Hyderabad and other cities of southern Sindh province over the last three days, local Geo TV reported on Saturday.

Around 40 senior party leaders and activists have been charged with “facilitating” the anti-Pakistan speech of their London-based leader. Security forces have also removed portraits of Hussain from several streets and roundabouts.

Footage aired on local TV channels showed bulldozers demolishing MQM offices and local residents making off with computers, telephones, chairs and other equipment.

Though not officially confirmed yet, speculation is growing that the government is seriously considering banning the MQM despite the party’s Pakistan-based leadership distancing itself from Hussain’s controversial remarks.

The MQM initially claimed to represent Urdu-speaking migrants who moved to Pakistan after the partition of India in 1947, and has influence in the southern Sindh province. But the group has been accused of operating as an organized gang through the alleged use of violence and intimidation.

A young Altaf Hussain won the support of a large number of the Urdu-speaking community in the mid-1980s on the back of popular slogans such as “Muhajir [migrant] identity” and “Muhajir rights”.

Pakistan's Urdu-speaking Muhajir community has given a large mandate to the MQM in general and local elections since 1987. However, its opponents accuse the party of using vote-rigging and coercion.

The party has also been accused of fanning ethnic tensions between Muhajirs and other communities residing in Karachi, leading to thousands of deaths in ethnic riots over the last three decades.

MQM has had a checkered history of love-hate relations with the country’s powerful army. It has borne the brunt of several security operations with short and long intervals of respite since 1992.

It accuses the security forces of a "one-sided" operation against its activists. The government, however, denies the charge.

However, a recently issued report by the Rangers – a paramilitary force engaged in an ongoing operation against criminals and gangsters in Karachi – claims MQM activists have been involved in 81 percent of targeted killings in the metropolis. The MQM denies this.