Adil Najam
News reports suggest that the MQM (now the Muttihada Quami Movement) has held large simultaneous rallies in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Multan with its leader in “voluntary” exile Altaf Hussain addressing the rallies over the phone.
It would be fair to say that the MQM has been a largely Karachi-based but increasingly urban-Sindh phenomenon wielding immense political influence in those areas and that most people in the Punjab have looked at the party, its tactics and its leadership with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension. The party’s leader, Altaf Hussain, who is now a British citizen and has lived in voluntary exile in London for over 18 years still seems to hold total control over the party and his phenomenon is even less comprehensible to many outside of the MQM’s traditional stronghold areas.
The MQM has, in fact, been trying to expand its areas of influence, including in the Punjab. First outside of Karachi and Hyderabad to the rest of urban Sindh, then into rural Sindh, and more recently into the rest of the country. The push into Punjab seems to be a concerted one and is synchornized and planned. It remains to be seen what, if anything, will come out of this. But given the political and organizational resources the MQM brings with it, this is clearly a challenge to Punjab’s political status quo that they will not be taking lightly.
I myself am not at all sure what this means. Is the MQM truly out on a national expansion or whether this is a move geared more towards consolidating their position in Sindh rather than actually expanding into the Punjab? What sort of political reception will they get in the Punjab, and from whom? What are they reading in the political tea leaves about the changing fortunes of the established parties in the Punjab – the PPP and PMLs – and also about the political frustrations of the general electorate? How will the other players respond to this move?
Like much that comes out of the MQM, there seems to be a thought-out plan behind this move, but it is not yet clear what it is.
I’m no fan of MQM but they have every right to campaign wherever they want without any let or hindrance. Let the voters decide with their votes who they wish to select. Not for me or anyone else to predetermine. And why do we underestimate the pakistani voters anyways? They are not ignorant. We’ve never given democracy a fair chance in this country to begin with. Let PPP or whoever is in power complete their terms so they can never go back to the voters and say “look so and so stopped us from implementing all these good things we wanted to do for you. If you give us the votes now we will do xyz and your lives will be so much better……”. You take away this argument from the parties and they’d never be able to get back in power if they don’t perform. So let MQM go wherever they want to and leave it upto the poplulace. They have done a good job (sort of) of governing Karachi so maybe……
as the present setup has not been able to make any headway in solving the basic problems of the people and the opposition in the punjab seems to be the old tried feudal horses who have not performed well in the past,the MQM is trying to capitalize on this and move in slowly into the province.
Yasser: FYI. Altaf Bhai is an ex Jamati who left Jamat for some his own weird reason. Maybe because he was beaten up like hell by his old jamati peers. The tussle of MQM(read Altaf) with Jamat is on personal basis rather than some political reason.
The important thing,NONE of the party in Pakistan is democratic and all support Fudalism. I laugh when ppl say MQM is democratic. How it could be when vetran MQM leader Farooq Sattar can’t be a MQM leader because Altaf is there? Sattar Bhai is rather busy in blowing up balloons in the birthday of his Quaid.
I strongly reject MQM but I believe they do have right to exercise their right to run their election campaign from Punjab.
1) @Wasiq has a good point about regional parties trying to expand their influence nationally, which could only help in national integration.
2) Though I consider MQM to be a fascist party–far worse in heavy-handedness than all other forces (counting even Jamaat e Islami)–I also think MQM is going to learn to live with other forces even in urban Sindh. Political parties largely (or totally?) reflect the society at large and, as a society evolves, parties evolve too. This ties into my recurrent theme and hope that Pakistani society is getting better by the day. Just let the society evolve–without any ‘agencies’ influencing the course–and there will be the balance which only democracy can introduce in a society.
3) Punjab politics is currently mostly about the Sharif brothers’ hold over that province. PPP plays a feeble second-fiddle in Punjab. However, the PPP voter in Punjab is also a loyal voter. Any splitting of non-PPP votes between various PMLs, Tehreek e Insaaf, Jamaat e Islami, MQM will benefit the PPP. Indeed, the 2013 general elections are going to be very interesting in Punjab!
there is a saying don’t see who is saying, see what he is saying?
do you want an end of feudal system? if no then continue to support other political parties? if yes then read about this political party and read about Mustafa Kamal and other workers? this party was targeted by PPP and PML(N) and others in the past, even Imran joined the band wagon but later on when he studied it he realized and commented in favor of MQM, i will suggest all of you to please use your mind instead of watching fake youtube videos and rest, when they do the work in Karachi, you people(Jamatis) say it’s funded by west, when they come up with agenda in Punjab and ask for middle class person to come into politics, you say other worst things, common guys till when you keep on behaving like crying children, this behavior of yours have given you Raja Pervez Ashraf, Asif Ali Zardari, Fehmida Mirza( who spend 1 million on purchase of new car tyres), Jamshed dasti, Raja riaz etc