Zardari Surrenders – MQM Triumphs

Zardari Surrenders – MQM Triumphs

Released on - Wednesday,10 August , 2011 -09:10

It was on 11 July that Rifah party welcomed the adoption of Commissionrate System in the wake of the MQM minsters resigning from the federal and provincial cabinet. Rural Sindh – the strong base of the PPP – was ecstatic with joy and its leaders claimed that it was the policy of the PPP all along to revoke the changes carried out by General Musharraf to make Karachi and Hyderabad a veritable den of the MQM mafia. But the ecstasy was short lived. The MQM responded to the challenge by unleashing a reign of terror in Karachi. It turned out that the death squads of the MQM were more organised and efficient than those of the PPP or the ANP.

The police in Karachi have learnt over the last three years of PPP rule that the provincial government will not defy the writ of the MQM in Karachi. It keeps a safe distance away when the MQM unleashes its death squads. The Command and Control Centre established by former Karachi Nazim Mustafa Kamal is aiding target killers and terrorists in their activities. It has since been reported in the press that the ‘Centre’ keeps a close watch on various parts of the city through CCTV cameras installed all across Karachi. The Centre provides the death squads and other anti-social elements with information about the movement of the police and personnel of other law enforcement agencies as well as instructions for terror activities. During recent incidents of violence, ISI recorded conversations between Command and Control Centre officials and target killers. On Feb 28, SHC ordered the handing over of the centre to the Home Department, but the directives not complied with so far.

After the resignation of MQM ministers, President Asif Zardari took direct charge of negotiations with the MQM. It was surprising indeed that surrender by him was as quick and complete. After first submitting to the demand for restoration of the Musharraf system for Karachi and Hyderabad only, he restored the System in the entire province of Sindh. Questions are being asked what caused the quick surrender after more than three years of preparation. The consensus among political observers is that it is that pressure for the humiliating climb down came from the very same ‘foreign hands’ which give money, weapons and training to the MQM i.e. India and Israel. The route through which President Zardari and Interior Minister Rehman Malik receive their orders is via London (where the MQM leader resides and has his HQ) or Washington DC. Indo-Zionist control of Zardari- Geelani Administration is now complete. There is no wriggle room any more.

The other explanation for the surrender of President Zardari is that he has realised how far advanced is the readiness of the MQM for a civil war in Karachi. The Community Police Department established by the former city Nazim enrolled some 7,500 activists of the MQM into the department without conducting any interviews to determine their eligibility. The order by SHC to hand over the Command and Control Centre to the Sindh Home Department has not been complied with despite the passage of over five months, due to PPP’s ‘policy of reconciliation’. With the restoration of the Musharraf System, the Community Police and Command & Control Centre for keeping an eye on the federal forces in Karachi would come under the City Government and there would be no need for a hand over to the Sindh Home Department any more.

When the PPP inducted its former sworn enemies (PML-Q) into the ruling coalition, it was a considered a ‘master stroke’ of politics as it eliminated dependence on MQM votes in the National Assembly to secure majority. The ability of Zardari-Geelani kleptomaniac Administration to provide honest and effective management of the economy was always doubtful but its mastery over wheeling dealing politics earned it much praise. The people of Pakistan had come to fear that the present coalition may well win in the next elections also. The dreaded prospect still looms large over the political horizon but the humiliation inflicted on President Zardari by the MQM in Karachi has raised hopes that the nightmare scenario may be avoided.

While the deindustrialisation of Pakistan is proceeding rapidly because of the load shedding of electricity and gas, the pain of watching the socio-political slide of Pakistan is becoming too much to bear. The Army will not intervene in the quagmire of Karachi and it should not. The people are looking towards the Supreme Court to dismiss the Geelani Administration and induct an interim government. President Zardari, hopefully chastened by his experience, may well agree to the assemblies being dissolved if that is the only way he can retain some of all he now controls. There appears to be no other way.

by (R)Brig Usman Khalid

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