|
[home]>[publications]>refugee
watch
The
Mohajirs of Pakistan
Mohajirs: the rise......
Defined by the Census of Pakistan, 1951, "A Mohajir is a person who has
moved into Pakistan as a result of Partition or for fear of disturbances
connected therewith". Those who were lucky to survive the massacres of
the partition, streamed into the Punjab and Sindh. In an unprecedented
population movement, eight million people migrated to West Pakistan.
East Punjabis were allowed to settle in West Punjab. The language and
culture of these refugees, these Mohajirs was identical to that of the
indigenous population. The refugees settled in the urban areas as well
as the rural areas. Ironically, these were the people who had suffered
the terror of Partition, these were the people who best fitted the
definition of "Mohajir", yet these are the people who are seldom, if at
all, are referred to as such. The government of Punjab made it easier
for the refugees to settle. The people had a shared history of violence,
shared culture, music, food and spoke a common language. Very quickly,
they became and were accepted, in every sense of the word, as Pakistani.
The term Mohajir politically refers to those who came from the rest of
India and chose to settle in Sindh. They include the first Prime
Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan. They were the Muslim elite from
the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh), they were the people who
fought the ideological battles for the creation of a separate Muslim
state in the Indian heartland. They brought with them the culture of the
nawabi courts, also their language, Urdu. They came to their created
‘homeland’ with cultural linkages from the past. Assimilation with the
local Sindhi population was and remains a distant after thought.
Mohajirs were well educated, were already in finance and business and
therefore had little problem in establishing themselves in the new
country. Out of 12 industrial houses in the early years following
Partition, seven belonged to Mohajirs. Observers have noted that the
transfer of populations had a profound impact on the class structure of
west Pakistan as with the exception of some migrants from East Punjab
those from other parts of India were predominantly urban and literate.
They included the traders, primarily from Gujarat and Bombay, who
subsequently constituted the industrial class of Pakistan for two
decades.
Politically, the leadership of Pakistan was Mohajir dominated. Urdu
became the state language of Pakistan, giving Mohajirs a definite edge
for jobs in the public and private sectors. There was no reason for the
Mohajirs to give up a lifestyle, culture and a language that they had
transported across the border. The Mohajir elite dominated the
bureaucracy, business and politics till the coup of Ayub Khan in 1958.
Better qualified, better educated and well trained they were cream of
business and the civil services. Ideologically, they differed from the
indigenous population of Pakistan. The movement for Pakistan though
initially founded by nawabs and landlords was quickly taken over by the
urban professional classes who organised the Muslim League on democratic
lines. Consequently, as Burke has noted in The Continuing Search for
Nationhood (1991), following the creation of Pakistan the refugees who
had come from the cities of north and central India began to work for
some of form of a representative political system. There were other
differences too - Mohajirs were secular and desired to have a clear
separation between religion and the state, now that the Muslim state had
been created. Economically, though Pakistan was largely an agricultural
economy, refugees who had come from urban areas had little interest in
using public funds in agriculture.
.......... And Fall
With the death of Jinnah and the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan soon
after the creation of Pakistan, politics became chaotic. With Ayub Khan
and his policies began the decline of Mohajir elite power. At the cost
of Mohajirs, other refugees, particularly those in Punjab were
resettled. His Basic Democracy scheme, which was a system of local
government, encouraged the free flow of people within West Pakistan.
Pathans gained hugely as they now moved south, to Karachi for
employment. The transport industry in Karachi was and remains completely
Pathan dominated. Civil servants were sacked, coincidentally almost all
of whom were Mohajir. The Punjabi presence began to increase in the
bureaucracy, at the cost of Mohajirs. Finally, the transfer of the
capital of the country from Karachi, which was the Mohajir stronghold to
a site near Rawalpindi (later to be known as Islamabad) further
undermined Mohajir importance and power. But it was left to Zulfiquar
Ali Bhutto, the "son of Sindh" to hammer the nails into the coffin. In
the early 70’s the Language Bill of Sindh gave Sindhi the same
importance as Urdu and the restructuring of the Quota System introduced
the controversial rural vs. urban division only for the province of
Sindh effectively allowing Mohajirs to compete for just 7.6% of all
nationalised jobs. These two measures acted as external catalysts to the
process of a renewed political identity formation for the Mohajirs.
Bhutto’s nationalisation of industry and finance had a devastating
affect on the Mohajir community. There was a huge purge of the
bureaucracy, again a large majority of those sacked were Mohajir.
General Zia’s time was controversial. Some say that the military turned
a blind eye to the rise of the Mohajir Quami Movement (MQM) at a time
when most political activity was frowned upon. But in the established
power structures such as the civil bureaucracy the share of the Mohajirs
further shrank. Military rule meant increased Punjabi domination of the
army. The Mohajirs withdrew, as it were, to urban Sindh for the defence
of what they saw as their core interests.
Mohajirs have never had a presence in the armed forces of Pakistan.
Their power in the bureaucracy is now a far second to that of the
Punjabis. In business, once an undisputed Mohajir stronghold, they have
been relegated behind Punjabis. Without doubt, Mohajirs have been
subject to systematic discrimination. Yet, while all this is relevant to
this discussion on the decline of a community that had pioneered
Pakistan, these do not explain the rise of the Muttahida Quami Movement
(MQM), a party which represents most lower and middle class Mohajirs.
Politically, the Mohajir community is represented for better or for
worse, by Altaf Hussain and the MQM. Though the MQM is hardly supported
by the elite among Mohajirs, it remains the only access to power for the
majority of Mohajirs, the change in name (from Mohajir to Muttahida)
notwithstanding. To its credit, the MQM has steered clear of religious
fundamentalism and has remained a strong supporter of women’s rights.
The organisation prides itself on its working class origins. Altaf
Hussain remains an idealist who began fighting for the recognition of
the Mohajirs as a legitimate fifth nationality within Pakistan with due
rights and representation and who now vows to dismantle the oppressive
feudal system thereby uplifting the masses of Pakistan, riding on a
middle-class support base.
Mass mobilisation: The Mohajir Quami Movement
In the elections of 1993, once again the MQM won 27 seats in the
provincial assembly, reaffirming its stature as the third largest party
in Pakistan after the Pakistan’s People’s Party (PPP) and the Muslim
League (ML). The Mohajir Quami Movement, which sprang into life in 1984,
had started as an entirely middle/working class movement, with very
little to do with the elite. Most of its funding came from the working
classes, though large Mohajir business houses are known to have been
persuaded into making generous "voluntary" donations. The MQM is, in
some ways a unique phenomena: class based, urban, young, well knit and
able to mobilise very quickly. Its network in Karachi is vast and well
entrenched. The MQM is more than just a political party. Observers have
noted its influence in connected organizations, such as labour unions,
student organization, women’s organization and welfare organizations.
Verkaaik has noted that most MQM workers and members live in MQM areas
that facilitate access to services the state does not or cannot supply
such as primary schools and financial support for widows. The MQM also
has the largest percentage of educated membership among the national
parties of Pakistan barring the Jamaat-i-Islami, which is not surprising
considering that the Mohajirs are among the most highly educated peoples
in Pakistan.
Myths surround the origins of the MQM. Its sudden appearance on Karachi
politics has left commentators guessing. Created in 1984, it captured
46.5% of the seats in the Karachi Municipal Corporation, in the local
elections of 1987. Some subscribe to the theory that Zia deliberately
propped up the MQM to counter the PPP led Movement for Restoration of
Democracy (MRD) in rural Sindh. Allegations that the MQM was started and
funded and encouraged by the military and ISI while other political
movements were brutally suppressed abound. Expectedly, Tariq Meer, the
joint chief organizer of the MQM (UK & Europe) dismissed these
allegations in an interview with the author, "Ridiculous. If the
military or anybody could create a party, things would be very
different…How can Zia make Altaf Hussain a public leader?" He further
said in response to a question that it had been repeatedly said in
accusation that India was sponsoring the MQM, "anybody who talks about
democracy in Pakistan is labelled an agent of India".
The origins of the MQM lie in its roots. Mohajirs have myths. There is
the myth of a common identity based on a perceived sense of systematic
discrimination; the myth that they are the creators of Pakistan and are
therefore more Pakistani than the Sindhis and others. There is also the
myth that all those who crossed the borders in 1947 suffered great
personal loss and sacrifice for the new country. A common identity had
been forged with a common language. Urdu had forged a common link and
Urdu was the passport to the civil services, and financial power. It has
also been argued that the Muslim League had its intellectual growth in
the dusty towns of Uttar Pradesh, Aligarh, Meerut, and others. Also that
the Mohajirs had made great personal sacrifices to come to Pakistan,
though this holds true probably more for those who had migrated to
Punjab. It was a much more peaceful transition for those who came to
Sindh. But myths forge an identity. The Mohajirs have created theirs,
overcoming linguistic and cultural differences.
The politicisation of Mohajirs
The Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto era was central to the intellectual foundations
of Mohajir nationalism as during his time administrative procedures that
compartmentalised Sindh and Pakistan society were established, and
regional cultures such as that of the Sindhis were promoted. The
Language Bill, the Quota System and the nationalization of industry and
financial institutions played an important role in politicising the
Mohajir identity. Bhutto came to power in 1971 at a particularly
challenging point in Pakistan’s history. The Eastern half of the country
seceded to form Bangladesh. Till 1971, power sharing in Pakistan
primarily referred to that between the Eastern and Western wings. The
Quota System was first introduced in the 1950’s in deference to Bengali
demands. The Bhutto period had to contend with power-sharing with the
provinces that remained in Pakistan: Punjab, Baluchistan, the NWFP and
Sindh. Conflicting demands in West Pakistan earlier suppressed, now
found a voice. The Quota System of 1973, much reviled by Mohajirs, was a
response to changing political reality. Based on population ratios, the
designated quota for federal government employment is as follows:
The quota system in public sector employment
Area of Domicile Quota%
Punjab/Islamabad 50
NWFP 11.5
Rural Sindh 11.4
Urban Sindh 7.6
Northern Areas/FATA 4.0
Baluchistan 3.5
Azad Kashmir 2.0
Merit 10
Source: Government of Pakistan, Establishment Division, memo no. F8/9/72
(TRV) 31 August, 1973. Islamabad
The Mohajirs took exception to the rural-urban divide exclusively for
Sindh. It institutionalized the marginalization of Mohajirs. Bhutto
played to the gallery, appeasing his constituency, that of rural Sindh.
Tariq Meer speaks not only for Mohajirs, but for any thinking person on
this issue: “If the quota system was such a wonderful thing for the
rural population of Pakistan, then it should have been introduced
everywhere. Why has it been only in Sindh? Don’t other people in
Pakistan have the same problems vis-a-vis urban vs. rural? The rural
populations of Punjab, Baluchistan and NWFP are as illiterate, as
backward and as oppressed as in Sindh.” Second, its been argued that the
populations of Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur were underestimated at the
time, so as to reduce the quota percentage. This system was intended to
be in place for 10 years, but successive governments have voted for its
continuity: the most recent vote to extend this by a two-third majority
was held in July 1999. Opposed only by the MQM in the National Assembly,
the Quota System is now in place till 2013.
The Language Bill introduced in 1972, elevated Sindhi to the status of
official language for the province, equating it with Urdu. Considering
how important Urdu is for the Mohajir population culturally in addition
to linguistically, it was not surprising that the introduction of this
Bill created large-scale rioting. It was Bhutto’s populist
nationalisation of large-scale manufacturing industry and financial
institutions which not only brought the growth rate down to 3%, the
lowest in Pakistan’s history, but more importantly, immensely raised the
level of Mohajir political awareness. Privately owned commercial banks
and insurance companies were brought under government control. Since
most of these were Mohajir owned, the result was debilitating.
Overnight, fifty percent of the workers were now Punjabi - the Mohajirs
who formerly dominated these institutions could now form just 7.6% of
the work-force.The overall effect of nationalization filtered down from
the elite to the working classes, and this where the mass base for a
disfranchised, educated but unemployed community began to take shape.
Even private educational institutions were nationalized, thus reducing
access for Mohajirs to a system of networking and patronage.
In addition to Bhutto’s policies, external factors such as the Gulf boom
of the late 1970s added fuel to the fire. Pakistanis flocked to the
Middle East for employment - a large number of these were Mohajirs.
Remittances from there to their middle-class/lower middle class families
created new socio-economic groups. Afghan war refugees, who numbered
close to 3.5 million, settled largely in the NWFP and Baluchistan, but
had a staggering effect on the ethnic mix of Karachi. It encouraged
further Pathan migration down south. It was in such an atmosphere that
the All Pakistan Mohajir Students Organisation (APMSO) was formed in the
campus of Karachi University, in 1978. Altaf Hussain gave this powerful
emotion a concrete political identity.
The Zia years undid some of the nationalization of industry but these
were seldom returned to their original Mohajir owners. And the
bureaucracy, a critical ally for Zia, stood to gain. During Zia’s time,
the military-bureaucracy network dominated civil society in Pakistan. A
large number of civil and military bureaucrats, mostly Pathans or
Panjabis, amassed personal fortunes through the spoils of the Afghan
war. Needless to emphasize, the Mohajir community, elite or working
class, stood nowhere in the line of beneficiaries. The MQM focussed
equally on economic and political issues. Its slogans on access to
employment attracted the working classes. Its accent on economic factors
drawing on its obvious ethnic appeal galvanized the movement. It took
Karachi by storm. Soon the MQM was seen as a highly powerful and
effective political force, led by Altaf Hussain who demanded that the
Mohajirs should be recognized as the fifth nationality of Pakistan and
that they should be allotted a 20 percent quota at the Centre and
between 50 percent and 60 percent in Sindh. Tensions between Pathans and
Mohajirs increased partly due to a constant struggle for scarce
resources and for control of Karachi. The first large-scale riot between
the two ethnic groups took place in 1986. This in turn consolidated the
need for the Mohajirs to have a political party to represent their
interests: the MQM grew in defiance of oppression. The party swept the
Local Bodies elections of 1987 in Karachi and Hyderabad.
The growth of the MQM as the Mohajir Quami Movement can be divided into
three phases. The early phase (1984-1988) saw the rapid rise of the
party to political hegemony. The middle phase (1988-1990) saw a
short-lived coalition with the PPP in Sindh followed by violent partying
of ways. Short of an absolute majority the PPP entered into an agreement
with the MQM, which lasted one year. Ire against Sindhis grew, Pathan
disenchantment temporarily fell to the side-lines. The MQM established
its presence in the other urban centres: Hyderabad and Sukkur. This was
not without cost. For example, about 250 Mohajirs were killed in a
Hyderabad bomb blast in Sept 1988 allegedly by the Jiye Sindh
Progressive Party, a pro-Sindhi organisation. The final phase
(1990-1995) saw the MQM enter into an alliance with Nawaz Sharif and the
Pakistan Muslim League both at the Federal level and in Sindh, as it
emerged again as the third largest political force in Pakistan in the
1990 elections. This phase saw the beginnings of a shift in ideology:
the MQM moved away from its ethnic platform to a more economic,
class-based platform. In the early 1990’s a small faction broke away,
known as the Haqiqi faction which claimed to believe in the original
ideology of the MQM. The MQM was now split into the MQM (A), the Altaf
faction, and the MQM(H). Many commentators confirm, including the
Amnesty International that successive federal governments and the
military in order to weaken the MQM (A) supported the MQM (H). Violent
clashes, now between the MQM (A) and MQM (H), in addition to earlier
ethnic tensions continued. On the 19 June 1992, the army was called in
to quell the chronic violence in Karachi, which was fast becoming
another Beirut. It was also during this phase that Altaf Hussain, fled
Pakistan in fear of his life. He left Karachi in 1992, for London and
has not returned since.
Evolution of the MQM: Now, Muttahida (1997 - )
The MQM (A) officially changed to Muttahida Quami Movement, in July
1997. Ideologically, the shift to its homegrown philosophy of ‘Realism
and Pragmatism” had begun in the early 1990s. In its words as conveyed
in its web-site (mqm.org), the MQM is working toward establishing a
pragmatic social and political order that provides sanctity of life and
property for people of all social strata. It provides ample
opportunities to the members of the disadvantaged class to better their
lives without taking anything away from the advantaged class. Further,
the MQM believes in creating an economic system that makes all national
resources available to all citizens of Pakistan, purely on the basis of
merit and hard work, without any regard to race, religion, gender,
language or other basis of discrimination.
The vision of the MQM has thus broadened from a primarily ethnic focus
to a social reform agenda. There are however, no clear cut policies, no
set goals except an overall change of the prevailing system and greater
economic benefits to all the lower/working classes. Unlike before, there
is no defined constituency for MQM workers to target, unless, of course,
the target is the entire middle class. Physically Karachi and Sindh
remain synonymous with the MQM. However the willingness of the MQM to
form coalitions with those they decry rhetorically shows that access to
power is a central concern for the MQM. The Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM)
is here to stay. In the 1997 elections it emerged as an important power
broker once again, as the third largest political force in the country.
Its agenda has moved much beyond Karachi, Sindh and ethnic politics: it
now talks of transforming feudal culture, of an equal distribution of
resources, of the improvement of the conditions of the downtrodden
masses of Pakistan, who according to rhetoric are 98% of the population.
Its immediate target is the rising middle class of Pakistan, and if it
is to succeed in its ambitions, it must tap this resource. However given
its record of violence and its now remote control through long distance
leadership, the MQM may be unequal to the task.
The challenge of the MQM now lies in delivering its message of social
reform to a less recipient target group, many of whom still equate
Muttahida with Mohajir. For the Mohajir community the past five decades
have seen a shift in the balance of power. The first ten years after
independence, elite Mohajirs ruled Pakistan. Forty years later, elite
interests have given way to a mass-based grassroots movements,
struggling to make a real impact in a country where any democratic
political activity has become increasingly difficult. How much of an
impact will they have on governance, how much of a representation will
they have in the real corridors of power, and when will these “chosen”
refugees be completely accepted and represented in all strata of society
remains unclear. (Nayana Bose)
|
