Altaf Hussain seem to be frustrated as the municipal election in Karachi and Hyderabad have been delayed and then postponed indefinitely by Sindh government on advice of PPP and ANP. Nevertheless, this outburst is good since it shows shallow democratic credential and emotional decision making of Altaf Hussain.
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Floody politics: MQM casts seditious stone at ally
By Muhammad Akram
LAHORE: Irked by the inflow of flood-affected people from interior Sindh to the province’s urban centres, the challenges and retaliation by Pakhtuns – led by the ANP – and the disappointment in convincing the PPP for a bigger share from the local bodies are factors behind the MQM’s invitation to a ‘patriotic general’ of the Pakistan Army to intervene and deal with politicians in the way ‘notorious’ during martial laws.
As an ally of the PPP and ANP this outburst by MQM chief Altaf Hussain is the second major attempt to destabilise the current coalition government, the previous one being an ‘advice-cum-threat’ to the president to step down in the wake of the military establishment’s opposition to the Kerry-Lugar Act for the sake of democracy.
The current threat to the political dispensation, which attracts a sedition case under Article 6, appears to have come out of reports in the international media expressing apprehensions that the elected government is facing threats to its survival at the hands of power establishment in the wake of the massive floods and a ‘growing disenchantment’ and ‘failure of the administration’ to extend a befitting response.
The previous attempt by Altaf came after certain cosmetic changes brought to the Kerry-Lugar law, thanks to extensive diplomacy by the Obama administration. The matter between the PPP and MQM had been further resolved in numerous meetings held between Altaf and Interior Minister Rehman Malik.
Altaf’s current call for a military intervention on the pretext of ending corruption and dislodging the feudal system has received a big ‘no’ from all political forces, including the PML-N, which chooses to snub him than offer a sympathetic hearing. The PML-N had, in fact, ridiculed Altaf’s now-known habit of staying in power and playing the role of an opposition party.
The MQM had the best time getting rid of the feudal system and cleansing the society of corruption when it was a partner in the nine-year-long quasi-military government of Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf, opined PML-N Information Secretary Ahsan Iqbal.
The MQM was best advised by smaller political parties from Sindh asking it to first quit the government then see how it could call for a military intervention. The PPP, on the other hand, has decided not to respond to the MQM for now and focus on relief activities.
A PPP member from the Sindh cabinet told Daily Times the time to do politics would come after floodwaters submerge, and with it the politics being pursued by the political orphans will also end.
He said the PPP would not let anyone stop the people from interior Sindh to settle in the relief camps set up in Karachi and Hyderabad. “These are our cities built on our land,” he said and added, “We have belonged to this land for centuries, not those who only sought shelter here.”
Talking to Daily Times from Islamabad, a federal cabinet member from Sindh said, “There are no buyers for the MQM’s conspiracy theories, even in the military establishment.” Gone are the days when the MQM could blackmail a ruling political party or the other by using its card of being a party of the establishment, maintaining, “The PPP cannot be threatened by military intervention.”
Talking about the PPP’s future political relationship with the MQM, the minister said the party would like to continue with the MQM until it gets done with providing relief to the flood-hit people. The PPP has had enough of its ally in Sindh in this two-and-a-half-year relationship and a future course would be devised considering the role of its allies, he added.
According to political pundits, Altaf’s call for a military intervention is not a sudden outburst, but a well-thought out statement aimed at warding off a situation that could arise if flood victims choose to settle in the province’s urban centre for a period longer than being anticipated by the MQM.
The MQM, already facing a challenge from Karachi’s Pakhtuns, cannot afford to have a Sindh-Pakhtun duo deal with it politically as well as numerically, particularly as Karachi is already boiling from frequent target-killing incidents.
The political pundits say a lacklustre response from the MQM in flood-relief activities in interior Sindh, southern Punjab and Pakhtunkhwa, compared to those during the 2005 Kashmir quake, is an evidence that the party had already taken political measures to ward off the influx of flood-hit people in Karachi and Hyderabad.
The Sindh government, a political observer said, would not mind if the flood victims took shelter in the province’s two big cities for long and would encourage them to settle permanently. With the party in government, the observer added, it will be easy for the PPP to get them enrolled in voters’ list before the pending local bodies elections to be held later this year or early next year.
According to political observers, it would be interesting to see how the independent judiciary reacts to this statement by a leader whose party was duly blamed for the May 2007 bloodbath in Karachi when CJP Iftikhar Chaudhry – then sacked by the MQM’s favourite military dictator, Musharraf – had gone there to address the Karachi Bar Association. The observers said though there is no point that the judiciary should react to the statement, it would be a test case at a time when its claims to be a protector of democracy in the country.
but abhi toh i'm only exploring various options since im a newbie.
