Pakistan has started an anti-encroachment drive in Karachi, targeting Mohajirs and rendering them homeless, jobless, and forcing them to slavery, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain said in his latest live address to the Mohajirs via social media.
"It is at the behest of the establishment and in active connivance with the country's apex court's Chief Justice, the provincial government and the local Metropolitan Corporation, homes and shops of the Mohajirs have been demolished in the garb of encroachments, while the fact is that they are the real owners of their homes and shops. In some cases they are the tenants for decades and have regularly been paying the rent to the authorities concerned such as the Metropolitan Corporation," Hussain said.
"The authorities could only remove only those takeaway stalls which created a nuisance and led to traffic gridlocks and impeded free movement of the people on pavements and on roads but the action can never be justified if the authorities with the use of state powers and means demolish decade-long-established shops and homes and offices," he added.
Hussain stated that the menace of encroachment is rampant all over Pakistan, but the establishment only punishes the Mohajirs. "Therefore, the actions are only seen and limited to Karachi which is a Mohajir dominated port city."
According to the MQM chief, the historical Urdu Bazar, and the Shoe Market, which date back to 1947 or the year when Pakistan was founded, adjacent to Karachi's Gandhi Garden, have also been demolished.
Due to the indiscriminate demolition drive, millions of Mohajirs have lost their businesses and homes, who are now living under the open sky and their children are facing acute starvation, the MQM chief noted.
"What tyranny and injustices the establishment and the Chief Justice have done to the Mohajirs are greater in volume and intensity than the Genghis Khan in history," Hussain remarked.
"Instead, they awarded a lease to the illegal occupant of Railways land in Peshawar," Hussain added.
The MQM leader further said that the ongoing demolition drive is a well-knit scheme manifested by 'the establishment' of enslaving the Mohajirs and to make Karachi city its colony.
"In fact, the ongoing demolition drive is as per an agreement with China with regard to China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the port city of Karachi would be converted into a Cantonment area," Hussain added.
Hussain at the same time also urged upon the Mohajirs that they should oppose the ongoing demolition drive and show their resistance or else they would be made slaves and their coming generation would be on the mercy of the establishment.
The MQM chief said that Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is the ugliest Prime Minister in the history of the country and the U-Turn is a hallmark. "He had made tall claims to give five million homes to the homeless people and 10 million jobs, but he is rendering the Mohajirs homeless and jobless," he said.
Taking a jibe at Khan, Hussain stated that the Prime Minister is going from country to country begging for alms and charity. "In fact, there is no democracy in Pakistan but a straight 'Stratocracy.' Pakistan's military is controlling all institutions and media, including the government and the Parliament."
The MQM chief also attacked Pakistan's Army, saying that the military has already imposed an undeclared martial law in the country. Also, politicians and religious leaders are serving the military for their personal gains and interests.
"Leaders of two big parties, Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), oppose the military when they feel they are on the verge of destruction at the hands of the military," Hussain said.
In Pakistan, the MQM leader said, that every ethnic community is a traitor except the Punjabis. "Double standards have wreaked havoc on Pakistan and the country could not live to linger with this sheers discrimination," he said.
"Sindhis, Balochs, Pashtoons, Gilgitis and Baltistanis and the Mohajirs should unite for the freedom and that their unity is a call of the hour without which they would continue to suffer at the hands of the military establishment."
"Injustices, atrocities, tyranny, and oppression are the precursors of birth of freedom fighters and then the freedom movements," Hussain added.
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