I received a very surprising and disturbing text message from one of the ANP leaders while I was roaming the streets of Qasba Colony in Karachi, looking at burnt down houses and markets blasted by bullets. The text message was about the meeting of President Zardari with PML-Q leaders in which he was alleged to have said to a federal minister in Sindhi: “How have I created a dispute between the Pakhtuns and Urdu-speaking Mohajirs of Karachi?”
The affected Pakhtuns and Mohajirs of Qasba Colony were sharing their stories of destruction with me and I was distracted by the text message, the same message that Saleem Safi discussed in his column of July 12, 2011, in Jang. I was disturbed by the thought that if this was true, then my country doesn’t need an outside enemy for destruction because our ruling class is sufficient to carry out this destruction for petty political gains. On the night of July 12, the leaders of the MQM asked the leader of the PML-Q, Chaudhry Shujaat, at their Karachi headquarters whether the message circulating about President Zardari was true and whether the president had created the dispute between the Pakhtuns and Mohajirs of Karachi.
Chaudhry Shujaat was shocked at this question and later he carefully said that “I was not present at that meeting but I have also heard news similar to this one.” After the meeting with the MQM, Chaudhry Shujaat got the idea that the MQM will not agree to work with the PPP as a coalition partner, especially after the restoration of the commissionerate system. In fact, Altaf Hussain has conveyed the message to the US government in his last speech that the US should not pressure the MQM to return to the government. Altaf Hussain alleged that the PPP was conspiring with the US against the Pakistani army and the ISI. According to some reliable sources, the MQM has a plan to release proof about this conspiracy, which will bring about a new storm on the political horizon in Pakistan.
President Zardari tried to twist the MQM’s arm by restoring the commisionerate system and shifting the political prisoners of the MQM from Karachi to interior Sindh. These have created more misunderstandings. The signs of hatred can be seen on the walls of Karachi. After a long time, once again we have started hearing echoes of demands for a separate province for Mohajirs. The MQM worked hard to give up the label of Mohajirs, but now its supporters are asking the leaders that if the Saraki and Hazarawaal people can have separate provinces, why can’t Mohajirs have one too? There are many reasons for the slogans for a Mohajir province, but some videos have played a negative role in this situation. During the recent riots in Karachi Pakistanis not only used bullets to kill each other but slaughtered each other. They recorded those brutish acts and circulated them through cellular phones. The footage clearly showed that the killers and victims both were Muslims and Pakistanis, both were poor. Their leaders are rich and live in the most expensive vicinities in Karachi (Clifton and Defence).
These rich people don’t fight with each other but they divide the nation into different ethnicities like Pakhtuns and Mohajirs and keep them involved in fights and killings. Only one statement by Dr Zulfiqar Mirza created disturbances in Karachi the other day in which more than 16 people were killed. It is a fact that Pakhtuns have lost more lives than anyone else in the riots in Karachi. Pakhtuns come to Karachi for work and most of them are poorly educated. Most of them drive cabs, rickshaws and buses. Some of them are lower-level labourers and have small businesses. It is true that a few areas of Karachi have Pakhtun majorities but their work is spread all over the city. Currently their work is still running in areas where Mohajirs are in majority but if things do not get normal then their businesses will be restricted to their own areas. They cannot go back to Khyber-Pakhtukhwa because the ANP cannot create job opportunities for them in that province. That is why Pakhtuns think that their livelihood is connected with peace in Karachi and the MQM has to work harder to resolve the problems Pakhtuns have in Karachi. Both parties are fighting to get the control of different areas which is only benefiting the third party. Killings have dropped in Karachi but people are still terrorised by the past situation. A ray of hope for peace is still alive in the city, which could be seen in Azizabad, the heart of the MQM, where Pakhtuns were still running their small businesses.
Pakhtuns should maintain peace in their areas and provide the same security to Mohajirs who are living in their areas. We can only give peace to Karachi by providing peace to each other. We must say goodbye to the politics of divide and rule. One may get some short-term gains through dirty politics but in the long run this politics will destroy Pakistan. Karachi is not under attack from any foreign enemy. Our politics is the real enemy of Karachi.
The writer is executive editor of Geo TV. Email: hamid.mir@geo.tv





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