The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has appealed to the ‘establishment’ to forgo what it called the bitter past and grant it clemency like the general amnesty offered to the ‘angry Baloch’ people.“Just as clemency is being announced for the estranged Baloch people, the establishment should also heal the wounds of Mohajirs by forgetting past bitterness,” the MQM coordination committee said in a statement issued on Sunday. Referring to reports about certain workers who had gone to India over 20 years ago and who allegedly confessed to having been trained there, the MQM said that any worker who had gone to the neighbouring country for saving his life after the launching of the June 19, 1992, army operation “did so without informing the party”. Given that at one time or other whole communities have fled Pakistan in search for asylum from persecution, the MQM’s explanation may well be plausible, but without evidence, they stand even less verifiable than the accusations against them. Yet, the important element in this statement is not the veracity of the explanation, but that the MQM – or at least sections of it – are ready to work with the government and give up their confrontational stance. The government is presented with a golden opportunity to end the uncertainty surrounding the city of Karachi and bring MQM back into the fold. The statement concludes that if the government starts to “heal the wounds of Mohajirs” then the “MQM will extend its fullest support to it”. Reconciliation, of course, does not mean that the accountability process has to stop; it only means that MQM is a cooperating party, not a hostile one.The establishment may feel that after this ‘confession’ it is the right time to press its advantage by ramping up the crackdown, but the fact is that the MQM statements makes some valid points. The Urdu speaking community is a large one, and is the basis of the MQM; a relentless and indiscriminate crackdown will isolate them. The government must approach the community’s capable and honest leaders – it has plenty – and instead of targeting the complete party, hope to sequester it from its criminal elements.Also the The establishment’s predilection for meddling in politics — which has contributed in no small measure to the MQM’s periodic rise and ‘fall’, and to the birth of the MQM-Haqiqi as a counterbalance — does not take into account the dangers inherent in marginalising a large chunk of the population.
pk.shafaqna.com
