Test Match of Another Kind!


Written by S.G. Jilanee • Cover Stories • July 2007

For Altaf Hussain, the fight with Imran Khan will be his third bout. He has already had major encounters, with Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, writes S.G. Jilanee

One is a cricket superstar, World Cup champion, batsman and bowler par excellence, adored by some and admired by many in the British Isles, an Oxford alumnus, ‘son of the soil’ and a man of sufficient means. He is the founder-president of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf.

The other is an immigrant, of small means; his home a non-descript house built on a 120-square yards plot of land, educated in the country, without any impressive degrees to display. This man of humble background is the founder of the Muttaheda Qaumi Movement. Loved, revered and almost worshipped by a solid mass of the Muhajir community, he has reached out lately to other ethnic communities and had their members elected on MQM ticket. While urban Sindh and particularly, Karachi remains his solid vote bank, he is making inroads even into rural Sindh and other provinces.

Imran Khan has just one seat in the National Assembly, his own, and no representation in any province. He does not enjoy mass following. He does not draw any big crowds anywhere. He does not have any ‘vote bank.’ Only in Karachi his name can be seen splashed on the walls here and there. But Karachi is a commercial city, where anybody, including palmists, astrologers and healers of venereal diseases and sexual debility, can hire wall-chalkers.

By contrast, huge crowds gather to hear Altaf Hussain with rapt attention when he speaks over the telephone from thousands of miles away in London. When he used to address public meetings in person, in Karachi, he would sometimes give a signal for silence and the mesmerized sea of humanity would fall dead, so you could hear a pin drop. That was his test for discipline. Even today, he continues to exercise the same hypnotic influence through the telephone.

It is this hypnotic influence of Altaf Hussain over the multitude which Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto took turns to break. In fact Nawaz was so chagrinned by the scenario, when he witnessed it demonstrated at a public meeting at Liaquatabad in Karachi, once, that he decided to ‘cut Altaf to size.’ The full fury of the state apparatus including the police and the paramilitary was unleashed to annihilate the MQM. Altaf was denounced as a secessionist. Even a brigadier, no less, came forth to present a slide show of a map of ‘Jinnahpur’ as an independent state, purported to have been drawn up by Altaf’s MQM.

Benazir, for her part tried to turn Karachi into MQM’s graveyard. They tried to create a schism in the party. They promoted a rival faction. Numerous FIRs were engineered against Altaf for crimes calling for capital punishment, including abetment of murder. But, no charge ever stuck. No anti-Altaf conspiracy ever succeeded. Even when a lower court judge convicted Mr. Hussain, the sentence was quashed by the higher court on appeal.

Now Imran Khan has declared war on Altaf Hussain. Feigning outrage at the tragic event of 12 May, he has vowed to have the latter stripped of his British nationality and tried in a British court ‘on ground of his involvement in terrorist activities in Karachi and masterminding the May 12 carnage.’ While he shuttles between London and Lahore to collect evidence, his lawyers have filed a complaint with the Scotland Yard. He is also said to have enlisted the support of influential people including Lord Nazir and chief of the Respect Party, George Galloway. But, if, even Pakistani courts which are known to be influence-prone could never find Altaf Hussain guilty, what Imran’s influential contacts could avail with a British court, may be anybody’s guess.

Intriguingly Imran, whom Altaf or his party had given no offence has chosen to start a fight with him, whereas Nawaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto and even Qazi Hussain, whose workers were directly involved in the clashes with MQM on 12 May and suffered casualties, did not make any accusation against Altaf Hussain. People have critiqued Altaf for his indiscretion in calling for a rally to coincide with the arrival of the Chief Justice in limbo, Iftikhar Mohammad Choudhry, yet none directly accused him of ‘masterminding the carnage,’ as Mr. Khan has done. Even Asfandyar Wali, when he visited Karachi to condole with the bereaved families of the Pakhtuns who died that day, did not denounce Mr. Hussain, far less incite the Pakhtuns to fall upon the muhajirs, which Altaf-baiters had eagerly expected.

But, the process, to have Mr. Hussain indicted by a British court, is sure to continue till long after the elections have ended. So how can it help Mr. Khan in his own election campaign? Obviously he cannot catch votes with his complaint against Altaf. He cannot make it an election issue. And even if he wins the battle, what impact it would have on his vote bank?

In contrast Altaf already enjoys a massive vote-bank in urban Sindh. In the national assembly MQM is the third largest party and in Sindh, the second largest. Lately Altaf has been reaching out to rural Sindh, by having people from other ethnic groups elected on MQM ticket. His populist slogans appeal to the common people when he speaks for the emancipation of the kammis and the haris from the maliks, choudhrys and waderas. He reaches out to the minorities.

He allies with G.M. Syed’s nationalist party, Jiyay Sindh. He forcefully advocates provincial autonomy. In fact, the MQM has already submitted a bill on the issue, in the shura. He had cultivated good relations with nationalist leaders such as late Akbar Bugti and Abdul Wali Khan.

These policies earn popular support for him at home. At the same time his bitter denunciation of religious extremism and his strong advocacy for a negotiated settlement of the Kashmir issue and peaceful relations with India, ingratiate him with the United States, Britain and India.

In the present fight it was Imran Khan who fired the first salvo at a press conference, claiming that President Pervez Mush-arraf had briefed the top leadership of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), including Shahbaz Sharif and Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, in 1999, terming Mr Hussain ‘the biggest terrorist in Pakistan’. He further revealed that "Gen Musharraf had told them that Altaf Hussain was receiving funds from India for terrorist activities."

But, apart from the fact that this revelation after seven years has lost whatever taste it may have had when fresh, it reflects on Mr. Khan’s own integrity. It also sounds risible. Why did he sleep over it so long, for example? And besides, how did Mr. Khan know, what Musharraf had told the Sharif brothers in his ‘brief’ in 1999, when the Sharifs or Choudhry Nisar never mentioned it?

Interestingly, Altaf Hussain did not respond personally. But his followers did in their own way. They splashed the city of Karachi with graffiti giving Imran Khan uncomplimentary titles besides calling him the father of an illegitimate child. The campaign rose to such a crescendo that Mr. Hussain had to intervene to stop it.

In retaliation for Imran’s complaint in the court, the MQM legislators filed a reference with the Speaker of the National Assembly seeking Imran Khan’s disqualification from the Assembly membership on charges of ‘moral turpitude,’ under Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution. The Speaker then forwarded the reference to the Election Commission.

The MQM is also digging some real dirt against Imran Khan. It hammers away at his extra-marital relations with Sita White, resulting in the birth of their love child, Tyrian, It regales the public with juicy stories of their romance, the friendship between Sita and Jemima, - one he philandered with; the other he married, and so forth. Cornered, Imran has confessed to ‘philandering.’ But he disowns Tyrian.

However, regardless of how the battle ends, quite some diversion is being provided meanwhile to the entertainment-starved public by the mutual dirt-digging and mud-slinging. It is like a free-style wrestling match.