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Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), officially known up to 26 July 1997 ()as Mohajir Qaumi Movement (Emigrant National Movement) , is a political party in Pakistan. MQM has no strong religious or political ideology, it should be more considered as a moderate liberal and secularist party, as well as an ethnic party.
MQM represents the urban Urdu-speaking Mohajir population which emigrated from India when Pakistan and India split in 1947. MQM agitates for Mohajir rights in Pakistan, and struggles to gain more political power for Mohajirs. The MQM also seeks to improve the low social and economic status of the Mohajir population.
Philosophy
MQM claims that official discrimination against Muhajirs began in 1958 when Muhammad Ayub Khan seized the presidency of Pakistan in a military coup. Ayub Khan systematically eliminated Mohajirs from important positions in the civil service, bureaucracy and local government. MQM accuses the subsequent administration of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of nationalizing Mohajir businesses, unfairly taxing them, and outlawing the use of Urdu by teachers and bureaucrats. MQM is strongly opposed to the domination of the rural population of the Sindh province by landed oligarchs, as well as the domination of the Sindh by Punjab, Pakistan's largest, wealthiest, and most populous province.
Nowadays, as clearly expressed on the party's website, MQM is against all sorts of religious extremism, discrimination and feudalism, which it considers responsible for having destroyed Pakistan's political and economic system. Because of the strong speeches of its leader Altaf Husain against the Muslim fundamentalists, he and his party are the targets of many attacks, including on the internet.
Political history
On December 14, 1986, a group of planted armed Afghanis, seized the Alighar, Orangi and Qasba colonies and adjacent areas of Karachi and massacred hundred of thousands of innocents Muhajirs, bunrt shops and houses, and raped dozens of women. But Zia-ul-Haq government did not take any action against involved killers. That was one of the most shameful event in Pakistan's history after Dhaka fall.
MQM is limited to Karachi areas, where the Muhajir population lives. Many Pakistanis refuse to recognize that an identity such as "Muhajir" even exists, and view it as a artificial identity meant to divide Pakistanis and give power to politicians.
1992 military operation in Karachi June 19, 1992, an army operation has been launched by Pakistan Army to crush the MQM and physically eliminate the Mohajirs. More than 15000 MQM leaders, workers and supporters have been extrajudicially murdered, while thousands are languishing in jails on false and fabricated charges.
In November 1994, the army was withdrawn from law enforcement duties in Sindh, but the paramilitary Rangers were reinforced and specially trained police inducted. It is claimed that between 1995 and 1996, many dozens people were killed by Rangers and police, including members of the MQM
Current goals
with the goal of destabilizing MQM's base by promoting the offshoot MQM (H) as a pro-government force against the anti-government MQM (A). MQM (H) was provided with arms and ideological backing by the Islamic fundamentalists that the ISI was already supporting in Afghanistan and Kashmir. The violent struggle between the factions and other ethnic parties in Karachi was eventually put down by Army and Police operations that were conducted with brutal efficiency.
Role in war against terrorism
MQM international network
See also
References
External links
Arrest & Arms recovery from MQM workers
Yearwise detail of MQM's atrocities
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