On 12th May 2007 with the help of press & electronic media, the real face of MQM was exposed. Some analysts say that PTI Chairman, Imran Khan's unsuccessful efforts to try Altaf Hussain in British courts under cross-countries terrorism charges could have barely exposed him than the collective efforts of media, with courageous coverage, had brought in limelight the way Upon the orders of an army dictator, with complete support from intelligence agencies -once MQM used to blame those for all evils- blocking the arrival of Chief Justice Ifthikhar Chaudhry at Nicholas Schmidle, the author of Two Tumultuous Years in Pakistan, an upcoming book which will be released on 12th May 2009, in his Dispatch from Karachi writes his account of arrival on 11th May night published by Slate magazine on May 17th 2007: "I arrived in "With the MQM in command of every intersection, roundabout, and flyover, any attempt by the opposition parties to greet the chief justice was destined for confrontation. Syed, the Pashtun politician, was trapped, along with a caravan of his party's supporters, beneath a flyover on the main road leading to and from the airport. As gunfire broke out between ANP and MQM activists around 1 p.m., a well-aimed shot, taken from the overpass, smashed the windshield of a red Toyota Land Cruiser Prado with ANP plates, immediately killing a man sitting in the back seat. "They thought I was there," Syed told me two days later. He showed me the bullet recovered from the back seat of the Prado, the same kind of bullet used in the Heckler Koch G3 assault rifle. While Kalashnikovs are common in Pakistani homes, the G3 is not. Shahi said the only people with access to such weapons are the army and intelligence agencies." "On Sunday, I asked a police officer if he had received an official order not to intervene in Saturday's street battles. His face bore a shameful expression, and he replied, "No comment."" "On Tuesday morning, I returned once again to the roundabout where rioters had clashed with the police all day on Sunday. There, I spoke with a pudgy, middle-aged journalist named Rafiq. He told me, "On May 12, the nexus between Musharraf and the MQM was fully exposed. On the other side are the lawyers, journalists, students, traders, Pashtuns, Baluchis, Punjabis, Sindhis, secular parties, religious parties, and nationalist parties. The battle lines are drawn. Who knows where it will end."" Graham Usher, a former "The second image was of the "people's power" lionised by Musharraf. In fact it was the gang violence of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), one of the few mass-based parties in Musharraf's coalition government, whose base is "On 12 May, MQM gunmen torched buses, blockaded "Although secular in outlook, the muhajirs define themselves as a "nationality" and take a fascist view of all not of their kind, especially those native to A "An AP reporter saw MQM supporters calling for ammunition and firing from buildings, reportedly at opposition supporters…" Red24, a global security analysis magazine writes in its weekly editorial dated 16th May 2007, "Unrest in Karachi – The beginning of the end for Musharraf?" "… Pakistani security forces did little to intervene when MQM supporters clashed violently, repeatedly and inevitably with pro-Chaudhry anti-Musharraf protesters from the ARD and MMA." "The MQM is an aggressive, largely Muhajir pressure group. It has a track record of battling competing ethnic groups, particularly Punjabis and Pashtuns, and was largely responsible for the wave of inter-ethnic rioting and violence that blighted |
A BLOG ABOUT PAKISTANI POLITICS, SOCIETY, and ITS EVER-CHANGING DYNAMICS - October 2023