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In his confrontation with the MQM, Imran Khan has won the first round by taking his case to British courts, writes Karamatullah K. Ghauri
The problem with the MQM leadership is that it has not, to date, grown out of its college-days’ agitational and confrontational politics. That was the 1960s stuff and Pakistan has moved away from that era.
That the leadership is not ready to learn even from its own mistakes is evident in the reference it has filed with the Speaker of the National Assembly seeking Imran Khan’s disqualification from the Assembly membership. The anchor of this reference is Imran’s ‘moral turpitude,’ under Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution. The move comes in retaliation to Imran Khan’s determination to get Altaf Hussain stripped of his British nationality on ground of his involvement in terrorist activities in Karachi and masterminding the May 12 carnage. He was in the UK recently for this purpose and his lawyers have lodged a formal complaint to the Scotland Yard against Altaf Hussain.
Sita White, a ghost from Imran’s past, is being literally dug out of her grave to make a case against Imran being a philanderer and a profligate. But that charge could be levied, as Imran has argued, against more than half the members of the Assembly, and much of the cabinet of General Musharraf. However, unlike many of those alleged knaves filling the cabinet seats, Imran has not disowned his philandering past. The MQM is making a mountain of Sita White and her daughter, allegedly fathered by Imran, which, simply put, is petty skullduggery. Would not its leadership be eating a humble pie if Imran were not disqualified on these allegations? The MQM can ill afford to open too many fronts. But, as on so many occasions before, its narrow and parochial perspective is making an odd entity of it in the political culture of the day. Timing in politics is as critical as in cricket. Imran, a legend of the cricket world, has made his move against the MQM at a perfect time for him. With the smell of national elections in the air, there could not be a better time for Imran to take on the MQM in the context of what it did on May 12. He has chosen to have a showdown with it in a British court of justice where he knows the terrain is much better for him than his adversary. Besides, he has a definite advantage in the realm of public relations and popular opinion is in his favour in the UK where he is so well-known and highly regarded. He has the likes of Lord Nazir, an icon of Asian politics in the UK, on his side. To add a sharper bite to his punch, he has also lined up a man as vocal and politically astute as George Galloway, who enjoys impeccable credentials among the Asians there, on his side. Last but not least important, Mian Nawaz Sharif, another heavy-weight political exile in London, has also thrown his hat into Imran’s ring. He says he has his own dossier against Altaf Hussain. Cynically, the best bet for the MQM would be Imran taking his case before a British court and losing it there. That would salvage some lost ground for the MQM, both in the UK and Pakistan. | |  |
Compared to Imran’s immaculate timing, the MQM leader’s call for maximum autonomy for the provinces, though a right demand, is an epitome of bad timing. Even in the best of times, such a demand would invite a furious backlash from the power barons wielding raw power. But at this particular juncture, it could easily boomerang and explode in the face of those demanding it.
Many of those with fond memories of their youth tethered to a resplendent Karachi, ask as to what the MQM should do to rehabilitate itself with those whose trust it has lost? The answer is that the MQM is in the pits at this moment and a climb-back would take a Herculean effort. There is a big question mark whether the present leadership has in it, what it takes, to tackle this Sisyphean challenge. To be precise. what the MQM needs is house-cleaning at the top, especially of the leadership calling the shots in Karachi and in the ministries of Islamabad. The second requirement is for the MQM to do itself, and its askance votaries, a favour by insisting on General Musharraf to hold clean and transparent elections, under the watchful eyes of international observers and monitors such as Amnesty International, the Human Rights Watch and the Carter Foundation in Atlanta. The latter has earned recognition and respect for its candid monitoring of elections all over the world and a clean chit from it would accord the elections in Pakistan an imprimatur of dignity. If the MQM wins an honest and transparent victory at the polls it will have proven its critics wrong that it has lost its grass-roots support and following in Karachi. That is a litmus test it must not avoid, if it plans to stay on in contention as a political force on merit. It may have lost round one to Imran but the bout is not lost, yet. 
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