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The Mohajir Factor-II

Most ethnic strifes have economic overtones, yet in the blind hatred of violence this is lost sight of, says

Anytime any new political force emerges on the national scene they tend to flex their political muscle for gains for their supporters. This is not a Mohajir confined phenomenon alone or restricted to Pakistan alone, it is pervasive practice in most countries of the world. Though not exactly a good example, to an extent the “Mohajir” factor resembles the “coloured” factor in the USA, both are minorities that have majorities in certain key urban cities, e.g. Washington D.C, Chicago, etc. The world has not come to an end because Deakin has become Mayor of New York, except that Mayor Deakin has the executive powers that any democracy gives to a metropolitan government, Mayor Farooq Sattar has no such powers, he is ruled mostly by bureaucratic fiat.

It is very true that the MQM has an ugly side. No civilised society can countenance the use of “terror” squads but in the proliferation of squads of all ilk and political colours where squads meant for self-protection tend to run wild, one cannot single out the MQM only for ostracisation. All militant groups, whether they are PPP, MQM, Jiay Sindh, etc need to be exterminated by strong, punitive action by the law enforcement agencies. At the same time, one cannot also sit back and see the Sindhi become an ‘endangered’ or ‘extinct’ species in the urban areas of their own land. Any attempt to force the Sindhis to migrate out of the cities of Sindh should be stamped out ruthlessly.

Instead of going the way of confrontation, which easily comes by highlighting stark differences, it is time we enlarged upon the common factors, firstly to stop further ethnic polarisation and secondly to come together as the one nation that we really are. Pakistan has had a leadership crisis starting soon after the Quaid-e-Azam died, with Shaheed-i-Millat surviving him for a bare three years or so thereafter. We have since been in the hands of bureaucrats, the alternate political or military regime is just a mere facade which is changed from time to time.

The Province of Sindh belongs to the Sindhis. At the same time, a fairly large segment of the urban population do not speak the Sindhi language, but are Urdu lingual or speak any of the language of other races in Pakistan. They have as much similar fundamental rights on this land as the ethnic Sindhis. Our aim should not be to give any faction any basic rights at the cost of the other. Since the two main communities in Sindh are Sindhi and Urdu speaking, the Sindhi speaking population should learn Urdu, so should the Urdu speaking population also learn Sindhi. The other races who have settled in Sindh, previously Punjabis and Pathans, must learn both the languages. For many decades there have been inter-marriages within all the communities, this must continue to be encouraged as should commerce and industry, preferential loans and credits being given to joint projects. There is nothing that binds people together more than the fabric of commerce.

The major frustrations of the people stem from the fact that while there is a lot of rhetoric about adult franchise and democracy, at the basic level there is not even a hint of democracy in actual practice. Below the level of the Federal or Provincial Minister all is in the hand of bureaucrats, some of them morally depraved and having no loyalty except to line their own pockets. We talk about the looting of the nationalised banks what about the bureaucrats who headed the Development Finance Institutions? Why should we not bring the Chief Operating Officers, who have been Chairman and Managing Directors of PICIC, IDBP, BEL, NDFC, etc. into the accountability process? Give this task to a select private sector group and see how many come up with instances of loans and credits disbursed to families and friends, even on ‘swap’ arrangements to avoid accountability the Managing Director of one DFI would request the other DFI to process an application favourably, returning the favour on reciprocal basis. Some of the bureaucrats even specialise in the running of DFIs, hopping from one to another. Some of them cannot spend even one night without hitting the bottle, courtesy of willing beneficiary businessman. It would be interesting to see their class composition and the spread of credit disbursed. Now they have become the elite rich of this country a part of the ‘untouchables’. The people elect their leaders, the leaders promptly forget that they exist, leaving the rule to the real rulers of the country, the bureaucracy which goes on and on, bending the rules when it suits them, applying them strictly when it doesn’t. All this is as much true for all Pakistanis as is true for Mohajirs also.

The Mohajir frustration is easily assuaged by giving them their right of metropolitan rule in the cities in which a majority of their councillors get elected. The borders of Sindh cannot (and should not) be redrawn to include other nationalities but in the major urban cities of Karachi and Hyderabad, metropolitan government with all its benefits or disadvantages must be their prerogative. Given the right of local government, why should the Mohajir feel frustrated? The type of justice they serve to their minority races they will receive themselves as a minority in Pakistan. They are as much liable to provincial or federal laws as they would expect to enforce in the communities in which they have a majority. One doesn’t expect that they will immediately become saints and everything will overnight become fine and dandy, yet a start will be made, very few people who accept responsibility misuse that privilege, the dishonourable excepted of course.

One must face the stark facts of life. The Sindhis must realise that the refugees who came from India and their descendants can never go back, neither they can go to other distant lands, at least in any great numbers. For better or for worse most of them have settled in 3-4 urban areas of Sindh, the ethnic Sindhis have become a minority in those areas. In return, the non-Sindhis must accept that this was their ancestral land and to deprive them of their right to live in the cities would be as unfair as the driving of the non-Sindhis into the sea.

Mutual accommodation is in mutual interest while a politics of strife will result in deeper polarisation without any lasting solution. There is a great responsibility devolving on the intellectuals and the media to rejuvenate the ideals of society in the minds of the conflicting parties, not to exacerbate it by manipulating statistics and history. Mr Ali Akbar’s piece in The Nation is an ill-conceived attempt to create a lasting wedge between the Mohajirs and rest of Pakistan, particularly between the Mohajirs and Punjabis. Given that at this time the greater tiff is between Mohajirs and Sindhis, and Mohajirs and Punjabis and Pathans, Ali Akbar’s article directed towards a Mohajir-Punjabi problem comes into the realm of deliberate mischief making targeted to irretrievably damage the historic affinity between the Mohajirs and Punjabis. He mentions the Bushra Zaidi incident, fails to mention that it was a mini-bus owned and driven by a Pathan which started the Mohajir-Pathan strife in Karachi in the first place leading to the formation of MQM, Punjabis were on the receiving end simply because they were the first cousins of the Pathans. If intellectuals, having done widespread research into issues, tend to misinterpret and then misrepresent facts wrongly, it stands to reason that it is done with vested interest.

To twist facts is no great art, any thanedar worth his salt can do it as we see in concocted FIRs day after day. Intellectuals who write in the media have a great responsibility to be objective, a partial attitude may damage credibility but by the airing of such views it vitiates the atmosphere among the (mostly) semi-literate population of Pakistan. This causes incalculable damage to national unity. While one cannot propagate that ugly facts be papered over and we should all live in blissful ignorance of reality there is something called psychological warfare and misinformation is a major part of it. Whenever there is a motivated bending of facts, one must look beyond to the purpose and come to conclusion that the facts of responsible journalism were violated deliberately to exacerbate the tensions between the races.

Mohajirs must have their place in the sun, as much as any Pakistani. This place cannot be carved out at the expense of other Pakistanis, be it Sindhi, Punjabi or others, it must be done by integrating into each respective society without losing their own identity. On the other hand, where the Mohajir community have a majority, democratic practice dictates that they exercise their right to rule and other races must invariably learn to integrate into that society, without losing their identity or being coerced to do so.

Most ethnic strife has economic overtones, yet in the blind hatred of violence this is lost sight of. The only salvation for Pakistan lies in increasing economic opportunities and increasing the number of jobs, preferably away from the saturated cities of Karachi and Hyderabad. Holding onto democratic ideals, we must apply innovative ideas to solving the national problems, not deepen them by outrageous mispresentation. This is the time for good men and women of all races to come together in the greater national interest. A time to build bridges not destroy them, this is the time to compromise.

This is the time to be a Pakistani in all senses of the word!

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