‘No regrets for disowning Altaf Hussain’

For the past few years, Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui has been suffering from several health issues. He has all the choice to abandon his hectic political activities and go back to the United States to live a comfortable and relatively affluent life. But he is carrying the political cross of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), which many despise, but others remain willing to die for.

Siddiqui is among the founding members of the MQM from the days when it identified itself with radical Muhajir politics and seen as the party of the middle and lower-middle class educated people. From being a student activist of the All Pakistan Muhajir Students Organisation (APMSO) in the 1980s to establishing its political front, the Mohajir Qaumi Movement in 1984, Siddiqui remained one of the prominent members of the party’s core group all through its ups and downs.

During the 1992 operation against the MQM, Siddiqui moved to the United States from where he returned to Pakistan in 2013 to contest elections from NA-219, Hyderabad, which he won convincingly. A number of dissidents had been parting their ways from Altaf Hussain and the mainstream MQM since the early 1990s, but Siddiqui stayed with the group that remained loyal to the party’s founder all through.

But Aug. 22, 2016 brought an unprecedented sea-change in the MQM’s politics. Altaf Hussain’s provocative telephonic speech from London forced the MQM leaders in Pakistan to announce their complete disassociation from their self-exiled leader. Since then, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, has emerged as one of the central figures of the MQM-P, which now operates from its temporary headquarters, located in Karachi’s upscale Bahadurabad neighbourhood. Siddiqui being the party convener faces an uphill task of reviving the party which once ruled urban Sindh, but now cannot even operate offices in the areas which once it used to dominate. Despite his party’s heavy baggage of violence and controversial past, Siddiqui is among those MQM leaders who represent the soft face of the party.    

This week Bol News talks to Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui.

The MQM has been a formidable force in Karachi and Hyderabad for nearly four decades. However, its voters say that the party today stands divided and just a shadow of its past. None of its factions appear in a position to revive the party. Your take please?

Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui (KMS): I am glad that people are concerned about the factions of the MQM and want them to reunite. I say this because no one ever speaks about the reunification of the PPP factions such as the National PPP, the PPP Patriots and Parliamentarians etc. That goes out to show that it is the main party which matters and not the factions. The MQM-P got 147,000 votes from just one NA constituency in 2018 polls, while the MQM-Haqiqi secured just a few hundred votes.

That’s the kind of popularity we still enjoy in Karachi because people believe in us. If you look at the total election results of the MQM-P and add them up, we will be in clear lead. We are still the second largest party in the province, but the factions you mentioned are not even on the third or the fourth spot. Inshallah from here onwards, our party or tehreek (movement) will only go from strength to strength and will not see divisions, even if some individuals want to divide it. The so-called leaders continue to blackmail us, but the truth is that 90 per cent workers are with us and the remaining 10 per cent, who left us due to fear, pressure or some disagreement will also be back in our fold soon.

Have you really disowned the party founder, Altaf Hussain? There are speculations that the disassociation is only symbolic.

KMS:Well, let me say this loud and clear that we have disowned his doctrine and have tried our best to adhere to the basic philosophy and belief on which the MQM was formed. We (the Muhajirs) laid the foundations of this country and will fight to the last drop of our blood to save it. We don’t have any regrets about the path we have chosen. If we had not disowned Altaf Hussain and his policies and views, we would have lost our direction and goal. But going for a clean break from Altaf Hussain required a lot of guts.

I know that there are many people who say that we took the decision of disowning him because of fear and because it was a matter of our survival. But let me tell you clearly that people still love us… We have faced far greater crises in the past, including a full-fledged military operation, during which scores of our people lost their lives. When we weren’t afraid then, what can break us now?

The MQM has been under the spotlight often for all the wrong reasons including raising anti-Pakistan slogans. Is its demand for the division of Sindh seen provocative and troublesome?

KMS:These are mere allegations without any substance. It is just a propaganda of the vested interests who make it look as if the MQM is responsible for stoking up ethnic tensions. What about those, who promoted the controversial quota system all through and have created a wedge between us (urban and rural Sindh). They are the ones who have made the Sindh Secretariat a Sindhi Secretariat during the past 14 years.

In the entire length and breadth of Sindh province, the slogans of Sindh Daes Muqadar and Pakistan na khappay are openly being raised. What do they have to say about that? These vested interests are not willing to appreciate the sensitivity of those who made a new history in Pakistan’s politics by disowning the person (Altaf Hussain), who was the spirit and life of the MQM. But we left him when he raised anti-Pakistan slogans because there is nothing greater for us than the sanctity of Pakistan.

It is, indeed, surprising that people here still are not ready to end their relationship and association with those culprits who actually broke this country into pieces and raised slogans against Pakistan. This sensitive issue and quota system are concepts fanned by the vested interests. Tell me, why these issues don’t exist in Punjab, KP and Balochistan. Why no discrimination is done there in rural and urban areas?

The MQM has been part of so many governments. Why were efforts not made to end the quota system?

KMS: Well, I have a very different point-of-view on this, maybe different from the MQM as well. I believe that the MQM was damaged the most during the Musharraf era because the party shied away from its ideology. They should have picked the ministry of education for itself to promote literacy and make people aware but they did not for some strange reason.

In my opinion, the best time for Karachi or the urban areas of Sindh was between August 8, 1990 and June 18, 1992 – a period when crime in Karachi was at its lowest, the city’s (Karachi) revenue collection was on the rise and the education sector thrived too. More than 35 thousand people got jobs during that period and Karachi was committed to serve the country and play its part. But just then, a military operation was launched against us by the Nawaz Sharif government which destroyed a lot of things. Even Nawaz himself later admitted that he made a mistake.

It came as a surprise when you disowned Federal Law Minister Farogh Naseem. Why?

KMS: Let me make it clear, and we have clarified this several times in the past too, that we haven’t disowned Farogh Naseem. Earlier, I was of the opinion that we should help the PTI in forming the government but we should not become part of it. However, a number of our party members and leaders rightly felt that if we don’t become part of the government, then we may have to cope with a different PM.

The two ministries we had asked for suited our politics. The Ministry of Law was not among those ministries and it was neither our requirement. But the government said that they can give law ministry to one of our members to which we said that if you wish to hire Farogh Naseem, then we could give you a No Objection Certificate (NOC) on the condition that he won’t be called our minister as the law ministry is not our priority. As for Naseem, we completely own him as a senator.

The Prime Minister is all set to visit the MQM headquarter in Bahadurabad soon because it is being said that the your party remains unhappy with the ruling party’s performance. So why are you still part of the government?

KMS: Look, I will tell you honestly that during the past, when we signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with different parties, they were hardly implemented. But the MoU we signed with the PTI has been implemented to a large extent. There are a few things which might not be in the PTI’s control, such as the matter of re-opening our offices in Karachi which is an issue to be addressed by the Sindh government or other departments.

I have been saying this that we have learned to work without having any office at our disposal and we are not worried about that anymore. Having said that, I would like to reiterate that we are still a major party, though some quarters have tried reducing our strength and voting by force.

Yes, we have again not been given a fair deal in the census and victimised as before. But this government has done some sincere work in this regard and now the census are set to place in 2023. Besides, the PTI government has laid the foundations of the Hyderabad University which is great to see, because we have been demanding this for the last 70 years. So, all in all, we don’t doubt the government’s intentions to do well but seek a more serious approach from them in solving the issues.

But we can’t discredit the PTI for the high rate of unemployment in Karachi. During the past 11 years, the PPP through fake domiciles have stolen approximately one hundred thousand jobs of Sindh’s urban areas due to which the permanent residents of the metropolis remain jobless.

The PPP should have made an effort to unite the people. But they have actually divided Sindh. If they talk about making university in Lyari, why can’t they announce making one in Liaquatabad where literacy is quite high. The PPP is not carrying out any development work in Karachi and they just can’t digest our solid mandate here.

Was there any pressure on you from the Establishment to join the PTI government?

KMS: It would have been better for us if we got one more tenure in the opposition but we showed more seriousness and took prudent measures due to which not just the PTI government was saved but also the democracy. But it is not as if we don’t criticize the government or take a stand. Time and again we have told them that we could leave the ministries if they don’t shape up, but we will not become part of any conspiracy to dethrone the PTI government. Having said that, if God forbid Pakistan’s stability, economy or democracy is at stake, we will have to take some unpleasant decisions.

But again, I would say that we have had a better experience with the PTI compared to the PPP and the PML-N in the past.

At least in the PTI’s tenure, no under-handed or secret operation took place against the MQM and we appreciate this. If the Prime Minister visits us in days to come, we will meet him and apprise him of our reservations and fears because a number of promises have not been fulfilled. Honesty demands that whatever you promised should be fulfilled. We also want to see what PM Imran has to say about the rapid rise in inflation.

What are your thoughts about the PECA ordinance?

KMS: It is true that our minister was also part of this. But I have said this many times that it is the responsibility of the coalition partners to not only take direction from the prime minister but also give suggestions where required.

Yes, it is true that the MQM has a policy to oppose such laws and tactics because we have been witnessing how such laws have been used for political victimisation. So, I believe that the government should give it a second thought and amend the contentious clauses.

The ordinance which we have seen prima facie is that it would not only impose restrictions on the media but also provide a tool to target the common citizens. If there is Parliament, then why bring such an ordinance? We are opposing it and our minister Aminul Haq raised his concerns during the Cabinet meeting as well.