Pot Calling The Kettle Black

By Xari Jalil

When a gutter is forced open, cockroaches are bound to crawl out in swarms. And when cockroaches crawl out it becomes ugly.

Zulfiqar Mirza’s entertaining, amusing, interesting and even surprising outburst on Sunday had almost everyone in the country glued to their TV sets. I thank my stars the man didn’t say anything this time to induce violence in the province, but he said a lot of things that have shaken many and definitely caught others off guard.

In short, he opened the gutter and let the trapped secrets of the MQM run amok.

Regardless of what MQM supporters believe and however much they defend their Fuhrer in London, Mirza should be believed to be right about this “party”.
Anyone who enjoys Mumbai-based “bhai” movies can easily see the similarities in this party’s internal structure, with its fascist tendencies, and its fingers stuck in several criminal activities that everyone knows of off-the-record but can’t really prove them. They always get away with it. Even when murderers like Ajmal Pahari are caught there is not much social repercussion somehow, even though after his confession of killing at least 100 people, he has been allowed to walk free.

I’m going to point out that most of Mirza’s revelations about the MQM are not a shock to the people of Karachi. He talks about police stations being Unit offices, and most people know that out of personal experience. Everyone knew that Wali Khan Babar (incidentally a respected acquaintance of mine during my days in that APMSO/IJT/PSA ridden Karachi University) was murdered by men from the MQM.
He says that MQM was involved in target killings, and most people know this too.
What was so exciting about his press conference therefore was not the fact that he revealed new things to people. It was good to see someone openly blame MQM, and say that there was proof for this. The only thing that seemed a bit far fetched was the serious allegation of Altaf Hussain claiming to be involved in breaking down Pakistan. I really don’t think anyone with plans as vicious as these would reveal them, least of all to a member of another party, least of all Zulfiqar Mirza, who is known for experiencing Tourette’s Syndrome of sorts and blurts things out publicly propelled by his hatred for MQM.

While I admit that Mirza’s claim to fame in defaming the MQM (with proof) is admirable to an extent, only because no one else has opted to do this, what is disturbing me the most is the all-out public response that is bent upon making a hero out of Mirza - something that he is not.

Because if we condense the situation it is nothing but a gang war – a bitter rivalry between two gangsters, who feel each is infiltrating into the other’s territory. Mirza’s attempt to cry against the operation in Lyari goes to show that he is protecting criminals there. Why then was he relatively silent about the operation in the rest of the city? Everyone knows Lyari is a hub of crime and home to the denizens of the underworld. Why must it be whitewashed by him?
Not only that.
The People’s Aman Committee (PAC), something officially defunct but which is still operating not just in Lyari but now in other parts of Karachi such as the very sensitive Dalmia area, is just a front for kidnapping, drug trafficking, and other activities that the Baluch of Lyari are involved in. Several residents of Lyari themselves are sick of this atmosphere, but can say or do nothing about it.

agar qaatil hai nine zero, tou mirza kwoon hai hero?

HIS OWN UNDERBELLY:
Mirza himself is no less suspicious than some of MQM’s names. PAC has been involved in kidnapping Urdu speaking people and torturing them to death and then dumping their bodies in gunny bags, an inspiration from the bloody Karachi of the 90s. Sometimes these murders and tortures have even been recorded on cell phones and released in order to frighten people. Does it not occur to anyone why Mirza should be defending them so much and even recruiting some of them for his army of guards for escort? He has been alleged to have been supporting them since some time now. If Mirza is so interested in safeguarding Karachi, why did he not reveal his own party’s patronship of the Lyari gangsters including Uzair Baloch, Baba Ladla, Shahid MCB-wala, and Taju. These are some notorious criminals of Lyari that have taken over after the murder of Rehman Baloch.

Mirza is also politically incorrect and extremely rude (as proved by his words addressed directly to Mr Shaheeh Sehbai on a program Sunday night where he spoke about the other’s physical features very crudely).
He tends to get highly eruptive, and violent. A few months ago, he set his guards on a TV reporter Shoaib Burney, yanking him out of his car with his press card string and threatening to kill him for some reason. He has already incited one very deadly massacre in Karachi a month ago because of some reckless things he said about the Urdu speaking population. He chose to justify this too in his conference. The cheapest thing he did was to flaunt his wealth like a typical feudal lord, giving details of what all he owned more than once and unnecessarily. He repeatedly spoke about being a Sindhi as if he was representing Sindh’s people. Meanwhile, he referred to the Urdu speakers as just that – never as Sindhis. Mirza is in fact one of those nationalists who border on fascism and do not have the ability to integrate with other communities. It was also quite low down to pledge upon the Quran, creating a dramatic scene (and he never did say anything of value while his hand touched the Quran).

Then again it is high time that MQM be seriously challenged about the allegations on them. MQM comprises a group of ‘ghundas’, supported by their top leadership, and often other parties have been the butt end of accusations and have been blackened many times. It is about time the MQM was found guilty as charged too. At the same time let us not forget that PPP (and ANP) in Karachi are the same

FIGHT LIKE POLITICIANS:
MQM should not and cannot afford to resort to violence if they are clever enough, as many are expecting that it will. It can’t afford to leave the cabinet either or it won’t have chances of returning. It will have to fight politics like everyone else, and not expect PPP to pander to their whims.

While MQM is guilty, the public must think twice before making a man like Mirza a hero.