MUSLIM WORLD

Turkish Academician Turkkaya Ataov on the Mohajir Situation in Pakistan

I was one of the few international observers at the national elections in Pakistan (February 3, 1997) representing the Vienna-based and UN-affiliated International Progress Organisation (IPO), together with Professor Hans Koechler. We found a persistent pattern of infringement of the rights of one of the contending parties, the MQM.

We could not enter, even with international observer credentials, certain sections in Karachi described as "No- Go-Areas" for the MQM. I was a target of initially eggs, potatoes, tomatoes, bricks and finally gunfire at Landhi No. 4 area while accompanying an MQM motorcade headed by the veteran senator, Ishtiaq Azhar, a day before the balloting. The so-called "Haqiqi" men opened fire on the caravan to terrorise the participants. While some MQM members and a BCC correspondent sustained injury, the vehicles were partly smashed and firing created panic in the locality. There were indications that the attackers had police backing. Since there was no access to every area for independent observers like us, we wondered how the MQM voters could go there.

The other observer groups having been stationed primarily is Islamabad, and close to the official circles, mainly complaints had to be addressed to us, our time spent in Karachi, where irregularities, even violent interference in the electoral procedures, were expected.

We visited many polling stations. There was delayed voting in various areas, for instance, at Station No. 110 where none could pluck up courage to vote till afternoon. Some electoral lists were changed without explanation, and groups of people from Malir told us that they were denied the right to vote. In Station No. 95 at Korangi, a member of the rival faction, armed with a pistol, was stamping votes. Two MQM members were murdered. We saw the cadaver of MQM's Mohammed Hanif, a polling agent who was abducted, and talked to the medico-legal officers at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. The security forces who were present in and around the polling station could not prevent Hanif's abduction.

We prepared a detailed report on all evidence related to the infringement of basic human rights in the course of the electoral process to the (next) session of the UN Commission on Human Rights held in March, 97 in Geneva.

We observe now that the MQM had entered into coalition with the Muslim League in Sindh's provincial government, and that in spite of the MQM being the largest party in that coalition, it has been refused both the Chief Ministership and the Governorship. There are many MQM workers still in prison, and no compensation had been paid to those who suffered under the previous administration.

The Mohajirs, or the refugees from India. were about five million in 1947. Two generations having passed since then, they are now around 22 million with no provincial base like the Baluchis, Pathans, Punjabis or Sindhis, they are generally acknowledged as more Pakistani than any other people. But they are discriminated against in education, employment and in the political process. The other four main ethnic and cultural groups consider themselves as the "sons of the soil", and the Mohajirs as " aliens".

The Mohajirs in Pakistan and the Muslims in India, although their situations are dissimilar, are both "sons of the soil" as much as the other groups. The love of both for their countries should be accepted as deep as that of the (other Pakistani) peoples and the Hindus, respectively. The solution lies in adjustment. A society that tries to neutralise or expel communities different from the mainstream destroys its own vitality. Maulana Azad of India had warned the would be Mohajirs on the eve of their departure that regional forces would not allow them to integrate with the local population.

Just as the opponents of the Mohajirs should give up the path of confrontation with them, the Muslims of India should also take up the path of conciliation. The enmity towards the Mohajirs and the Hindu-Muslim conflict, with fanatics running amuck, have done a great deal of harm to Pakistan and India.                                             

(Source: The Mainstream, 9 August, 1997)