Political victimization of any particular group having their own ideology is considered as the lowest ebb of democracy and clearly speaks about the undemocratic traits of the ruling party. If we turn over the pages of political history of Pakistan in order to develop a better understanding regarding the roots of political victimization, the results could be quite depressing, if you don’t belong to the traditional or any religious party.
The earliest account of political victimization in Pakistan could be traced in the days of Field Marshal Ayub Khan, who brutalized the supporters of his opponent Ms. Fatima Jinnah as hundreds of her supporters were jailed and tortured for none other than political reasons. Whatever happened with workers of Mujeeb’s Awami League in the East Pakistan is also an open secret, but after losing East-Pakistan mainly due to the unrest and uprising triggered by political victimization of Bengalis, everyone expected that the Pakistani rulers would learn a lesson from it there would be an end to political victimization. Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who holds the honor of being the first democratic Prime Minister of Pakistan couldn’t hold himself back from making life difficult for his political opponents, he over threw the elected government of NAP in Balochistan and thousands of its workers and leaders were put behind the bars only because of their political difference with the ‘Quaid e Awam’ and the widespread agitation this political victimization brought ultimately resulted in Military intervention.
The Zia regime proved to a nightmare for the political activists and democratic forces as Gen Zia used Islam as shelter to hide himself from the public criticism and enforced Islamic laws to persecute the democrats, thousands of political workers had face inhuman torture like public floggings and even death sentences in extreme cases. After the sudden demise of Gen Zia in a plane crash Democracy returned to Pakistan and it was hoped that now there would be an end to the ill-culture of political victimization in the country, where the ruling elite wants to crush every voice that challenges the status-quo and talks about the empowerment of deprived class.
But all these hopes of parallelism proved futile when PPP decided to punish MQM for not only challenging of but defeating PPP in all the urban centers of Sindh, considering MQM as a potential threat for the feudal culture in Sindh PPP launched a full scale operation against the MQM, in which thousands of MQM workers were abducted, tortured, killed and dumped extra-judicially.
There are other cases of political victimization in Punjab as well, where PMLN and PPP have tried to use the state machinery against their opponents but none have dared to order extra-judicial killings and illegal abductions of innocent political workers, but the case of MQM and Karachi is quite different, where illegal abductions, ruthless torturing and extra-judicial killings have always remained the favorite methods of persecution by the political opponents of MQM. Since last 3 decades MQM has been made to pay the ultimate price of representing the lower and middle class, and the ruling elite of their respective times have used every human and inhuman to diminish the voice of MQM, ironically, even the Prime Minister’s in past have been participated in the propaganda against MQM.
The recent Judgement of the Supreme Court to upheld the verdict of Sindh High Court (SHC) regarding acquittal of MQM workers in Hakim Saeed murder case has clearly proven that there was no involvement of MQM workers in the brutal murder of Hakeem Saeed, and his murder was a conspiracy hatched by some evil minded politicians, who wanted to malign MQM as a terrorist, so they could launch an operation against it, and that’s what exactly happened in the aftermath of Hakeem Saeed murder, Mr Nawaz Sharif, the then PM as well, held a press conference and in which he (as the PM) directly accused MQM in the murder od former governor Sindh. Premier Nawaz who avoids taking the names of TTP mass murderers today for unknown reasons, had named some MQM workers and a sitting parliamentarian too.
After this controversial presser by the PM Karachi police unleashed hell on MQM workers as hundreds of MQM workers were arrested as suspects and some of them even executed within the few hours of their without pleading them guilty in the court, all this happened only because of the intolerant mindset and personal grudge of the premier against the MQM, the most tragic incidence was the brutal killing of Fasih Ahmed alias Fasih Jugnu, this 26 year old boy and a student of Karachi University was killed in the police custody after inhumane torturing, and body cuts.
The judgement of SC in the Hakeem Saeed murder case is an eye opener for those who believe in the fake propaganda against MQM, which is nothing but political victimization. The truth has prevailed as the a lie remains a lie even after centuries, but is this acquittal is enough for the 9 MQM workers, who were forced to suffer under severe physical and mental torture only because of their political affiliation?? Can anyone bring back their youth? Who will compensate the financial loss their families had to bear ? If the PM Nawaz, who was the main accuser of Hakeem Saeed murder on MQM, could not answer these question, then who will ?? As 16 years after the Hakeem Saeed incidence MQM workers are still facing Political Discrimination. Will there be any end to it ?
