Case for MQM & an Urban Province

Case for MQM & an Urban Province

MQM champions itself as a progressive and pluralistic political force. In the sea of religious bigotry and sectarianism, MQM emerged in 80’ as a unifying force between shias and sunnis. They had the will and more importantly the muscle to ensure that troublemakers on both side of the divide were in check. Before MQM’ emergence to power, Karachi saw bloody sectarian clashes on routine basis. In muharam, chaos ran supreme, thanks primarily to petro dollars coming home to roost. MQM alone can be credited with a complete turn around in urban centres of sind. Animosity and tension amongst neighbors subsided because they were united under the umbrella of MQM.

PPP in general has been no friend of Karachiites in particular and urban sind in general. This is not my feeling or some reach by an MQM voter. This is a factual reality and if I cared enough I would share unopposed statistics routinely shared by independent newspapers and championed by men like faisal sabzwari and haider abbas rizvi, who are far more eloquent than me, so we first need to come to terms with facts.

PPP’ ‘love’ for urban sind should not be a surprise either for anyone. Urban population of sind has never ever voted for ppp, ever! MQM or no MQM, urdu speaking citizens of Hyderabad and Karachi always saw bhutto’ policies of quota system as murder or meritocracy. I am a fan of ZAB so I am not going to dwell a whole lot on ZAB’ policies. You can call it hypocritical but I think I am mostly fan of the idea of a man who stood up for masses against military junta.

Surely the likes of zardari, makhdoom amin fahim, peer mazharul huq and zlufiqar mirza cant be blamed for awam-dosti. They are as anti-awam as they come. This is not PPP of ZAB or even Bibi, it’s a trite cliché I know but seriously, its really not! All you have to do is look at how ppp governed sind in last 7 years that they have been in absolute power and it should become evident that this is not a progressive, left leaning party. I know I am digressing but my larger point IS that there has always been this tug of war for resources between rural and urban sind and by design there will always be this tension. Quota system was initially introduced by zab to bring the rural masses to baseline, kind of like affirmative action for African Americans. The question is that at what point would we go back and seriously analyze the fruits of quota system.

Should there not be an honest attempt to check whether the unprecedented and lopsided sanction of monies for rural areas have actually resulted in bringing the rural population closer to HDI levels of urban Sindh? You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that PPP has failed the rural population of sind when it comes to human development, quite miserably and rather convincingly.

Again no need for a complex exercise, all you have to do is take a stroll in rural areas of sind. The easiest smell test would be the condition of schools, healthcare and food security. Another interesting tidbit would be to compare the lifestyle and access to basic amenities mentioned above between the MPA/MNA and the average constituent of rural sind. You can then do the same exercise in constituencies held by MQM. Proof of pudding is in the eating folks!

I as an MQM supporter can be blamed for being biased and fair enough I reckon BUT I am sure there are universities in Pakistan which offer phd’ on social sciences and I am certain there are independent journalists, sindhi speaking ones who are not really fans of MQM for multitude of reasons, maybe they can take up this task and do an honest exercise to see if 40 years of quota system has delivered the desired results.

The citizens of urban sind are convinced that their rightful share is snatched from them so rural citizens can be accommodated. it would hurt a little less if these resources which are being denied to us are at least being invested to make the lives of common villagers better. However what we have seen in THAR and almost all of rural sind, the verdict is that PPP stole those resources from urban sind and instead of investing them for the welfare of rural sind, they deposited it in Swiss banks.

If rural sind cant stand up at this injustice and robbery, we are done with letting go of our fair share so the coffers of Wadeyras and Jageerdaarz of ppp can be fattened even further. Bring on the new administrative units so Qaim Ali Shah can spend more time in khairpur and faryal didi can be present in nawabshah and khusrsheed shah can focus on thatta, rather than lounging around in Karachi, disconnected from their constituencies all year long. I say It’s a win win.

Shehr-e-Aaseb Me Aankhen Hi Nahi Hen Kafi 
Ulta Latko Ge To Seedha Dikhai De Ga