Muhajirs have no future in Pakistan, a top leader of Muttahidda Qaumi Movement has said, ruing that India has adopted an approach of indifference to gross human rights violations against MQM members in Karachi.
"It is a reign of terror inside Karachi against MQM members," Convener of MQM Pakistan Coordination Committee Nadeem Nusrat told PTI.
Nusrat is currently in the US as part of his party's global outreach effort to appraise the world community on alleged human rights violations against MQM members in Pakistan and inside Karachi in particular.
"We, Muhajirs, whose forefathers were at the forefront of the movement for the creation of Pakistan and who actually sacrificed their homeland, migrated to Pakistan, haven't been accepted (inside Pakistan)," he said, alleging that it was tough for Muhajirs to get in the civil services now. And for the army, it is has been a trend for long.
"There is absolutely (no future for Muhajirs). As in we stand now, I see no future," he said.
The MQM, Karachi's biggest political party, is facing a crackdown after its former self-exiled leader Altaf Hussain in London last year delivered an anti-Pakistan speech and asked his workers to launch attack on media.
The MQM emerged as a largely ethnic party in the 1980s. It has political dominance in the southern Sindh province's urban areas - notably in Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas and Sukkur where a large number of urdu-speaking people who migrated from India during partition reside.
Nusrat said he wants to travel to India to raise awareness about the plight of Muhajirs so that people of India can pressurise the Indian government to come to their rescue.
"When (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi can raise the issue of Balochis and other people around the world, after all we were once part of India, why can't he raise the issue of Muhajirs," he said.
"He (Altaf Hussain) has already knocked the door (of Indians). We know that there are severe repercussions for Muhajirs and MQM for raising the issue with Indian authorities," he acknowledged, noting that for doing so they have been branded as Indian agents inside Pakistan.
"But we see it in a different context, in a different spectrum. If we can approach the US, we can approach (European Union in) Brussels, we can approach (UN bodies in) Geneva, we can approach UN, why not India...We expect political support from our relatives still living in India. Yes, I think it's already happening to an extent," he said.
Refraining to give details of his meetings here, he urged the Trump administration to use its influence over Pakistan to end gross human rights violations against its own people.
In the last few years, he alleged, thousands of MQM members have gone missing or killed extra-judicially.
"The rate of missing persons in Pakistan have gone so high that some people now call Pakistan Islamic Republic of Ghayabistan or the land of missing, not the land of pure anymore," Nusrat said.
"Life of slavery, you can live in Pakistan absolutely fine. The moment you stand up for your rights as Muhajir and demand equitable treatment or a life of honor and dignity, then you are branded as traitor, agent of India," he said.
On the other hand, he alleged, Karachi is now being developed as a safe havens for terrorist and its leaders.
"While we are being denied political space in Karachi, the banned outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Harkat ul-Ansar, Sipah-e-Sahaba, Al-Qaeda, Daesh, Taliban, they all have license to roam, operate, and collect funds freely in Karachi," the MQM leader alleged.
He said he has the video evidence to confirm that these banned groups were allowed in the presence of the Paramilitary Rangers to collect funds for Jihad against American soldiers.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
