MQM: Sincerity Towards Other Ethnicities
By Akber Hussain
At the time of signing “Sulah-e-Hudaibiya” between the Muslims and the disbelievers, an objection was raised from the rival side to the name “Muhammad-Ur-Rasool Allah” saying, “Our agreement is with Muhammad (PBUH) not with the Prophet of God (Rasool Allah) and that it is our basic dispute with him (PBUH). We do not accept him as the prophet of God.”
Though his companions were not in a mood to accept this objection, yet the Last Prophet (PBUH) removed the word “Rasool Allah” with his own hands. At this point, it is very important to notice that as per the teachings of Islam, the Last Prophet (PBUH) has the importance not as only one good (in fact, the best) person or human being. Rather, he is respected and followed with heart and soul especially due to the reason that he was sent to this world as the (Last) Prophet of God. In fact, the purpose of removing the word “Rasoon-ullah” was to show the co-operation and sincerity on behalf of the Muslim community towards the agreement with the disbelievers (Kuffar). Logically speaking, what else could the Muslim leadership have done in order to show its fair intention to the rivals? How else could the Muslims have proved their sincerity to the agreement with the deniers? Anyway, after removing the word “Rasool-Allah”, the agreement was accepted and “Sulah-e-Hudebiya” came into existence.
It is an open secret that ever since MQM came into existence, it has been facing very common objection from almost all the political parties, columnists and the analysts to the word “Muhajir”. Although MQM leadership had quite strong and valid arguments in the support, yet it finally decided to remove the objection relating to the term “Muhajir” by replacing it with “Muttahida”. Everyone knows very well that MQM emerged in the name of “Muhajir” and this was a political base for it in the Pakistani politics, yet MQM leadership took a big step by risking its political ground in order to convey a congenial gesture not only to the political critics, but also to all the ethnic communities all over Pakistan. In fact, it was the fairest intention, fullest co-operation and the most sincerity that MQM was communicating to all the people in the country.
Further, due to this big step, there was a possibility that MQM leadership would face severe annoyance from its own supporters and workers. There were definitely chances that there would be some people in MQM who could disagree to the decision. But, by taking all these risks, MQM made the toughest and the biggest decision of its political life. Why don`t these anchorpersons, columnists, intellectuals, politicians and Ulema realize the fact that in the scenario where almost all the other “national” political and religious parties eventually return to their own ethnicity in case of need, while MQM, for the sake of striving to unite all the communities on one plat form for a revolution, has expanded its scope for other ethnic communities as well? The question is, how else could MQM and its leadership have expressed their sincerity and patriotism for the sake of brining unity in the country?
MQM not only transformed itself into Muttahida” from only one community-centric party, but also on-ground proved it. In addition to including Sindhi, Punjabi, Balochi, Pashtun and Hazaras office bearers to its top hierarchy of leadership (commonly known as MQM Co-ordination Committee), but it also made several non-Urdu speaking workers MPAs` and MNAs`.
Furthermore, MQM kept on doing its best for years to bring the different ethnic communities together on one platform. For this purpose, it set up various organizing committees for different ethnic communities to bridge the viciously created gaps among them. Finally, on June 24 2012, the entire Pakistan itself witnessed the results of the efforts carried out under POC(Pakhtun Organizing Committee of MQM). The people originally pertaining to the KPK province gathered in an impressive number in Jinnah ground on the appeal of Alaf Hussain who gave very loud and clear message of brotherhood and ethnic harmony especially between Urdu speaking and Pashtuns.
Though the Pakhtun convention, MQM`s leadership altogether turned down the allegation of not accepting the Pakhtoons in Karachi. Honestly, organizing the huge public gathering only of the People of KPK was itself an official and in-public recognition of the Pashtun ethnicity by MQM before the world. Then, how else could MQM prove its sincerity and honesty for ethnic harmony in the country especially including Karachi?
In addition to all these, MQM, to the extent it got the authority and powers either in the city district governments or in the coalition government, left no stone turned to serve the people regardless of their ethnicity, region, sec and religion. That is what the world recognized openly. It is said, “One`s reality automatically gets exposed when he/she gets powers and wealth”.
Practically, in most of the cases, it comes true. So, setting this rule as a standard or a yard stick, when we try to find out the reality of MQM and its leadership as it had powers and authorities especially during the PMLQ`s tenure, do we not get a very pleasant surprise about them that is completely opposite the long prevailing propaganda against MQM? The improved law & order of the city, peak of economic activities, more businesses, better job opportunities, tremendous increase in the foreign investments, historic development and improvement in the facilities for the general public surely made Karachi as the fastest developing city of the country which benefited all the people belonging to any ethnicity, region, sec and religion. On top of it, that was the period during which there was no conflicting situation between any two ethnic communities of Karachi that totally negated the repeatedly accusing MQM of opposing other ethnicities.
All these facts draw a very clear line between the politics of MQM and that of the rest. This is the fact that the anchorpersons, columnists and the political analysts have been deliberately ignoring.
