Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM)
Mothaidda Quami Movement (MQM)
Mohajir Quami Movement [MQM]
Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation (KKF)
The Muttahidda [Mothaidda] Quami Movement (MQM), formerly known as the Mohajir Quami Movement, is a political group which represents the Urdu-speaking immigrant urban Mohajir population which migrated from India at the time the creation of Pakistan in 1947). The Mohajir Quami Movement [MQM] came into being on March 18, 1984 as the "All Pakistan Mohajir Students Organisation" (APMSO) but politically it was activated in 1986. The Head Office of MQM -- generally known as "Nine Zero" -- is in Karachi.
Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation (KKF) is a charitable organisation affiliated with MQM.
The grip of the landed oligarchy in the Sindh over the rural population continued to be a main cause of the growth of inequality in Pakistan. MQM wants to rid the country of the medieval feudal system, and to rid Sindh from the domination of Punjab. Pakistan's Mohajir migrants remain marginalized, even though they are the principal speakers of Urdu, the national language. Karachi, the only industrialised port city in Pakistan, is bursting at the seams with a growing population, and public services have broken down. Sindhi nationalists are vehemently opposed to those Mohajirs who came after the first wave of migration following Partition. The Sindhis feel that the Mohajirs who came after this should be deprived of their citizenship.
In response to chronic unrest in Sindh Province, in June 1992 the army was called in to assist police in restoring law and order. In November 1994, the army was withdrawn from law enforcement duties in Sindh, but the paramilitary Rangers were reinforced and specially trained police inducted. in 1995 and 1996, hundreds of people were killed by Rangers and police, including dozens of members of the Muttahida Quami Movement.
Sectarian violence, including bombings, experienced an upsurge in 1996 throughout Sindh, Punjab, and in the North-West Frontier Provinces, resulting in about 175 deaths. Although by the end of the year the government quelled much of the violence in Karachi, it has not produced a political settlement that would provide a lasting peace. The Pakistani Government attributed most terrorist acts in Karachi either to MQM, or to the Shaheed Bhutto group of the Pakistan People's Party, which was led by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's brother until his death in a clash with police on 20 September 1996.
The Pakistan Muslim League (PML) led government of Nawaz Sharif was elected in February 1997, and consolidated its grip on power by gaining a majority in the upper house as a result of the Senate elections in March 1997. It secured 23 of the 49 seats available in the Senate Elections, bringing the PML(N) strength in the Senate to 30 out of 87, and with the support of its allies - the Awami National Party (ANP), the Muttahidda Quami Movement (Altaf Faction) (MQM(A)) -- led by Altaf Hussain -- and the Tehrik-e-Jafria Pakistan (TJP), it controlled a majority of 44 seats. The ANP and the MQM subsequently departed from the coalition.
Tensions in Karachi, Pakistan's most populous city, experienced a disturbing resurgence in 1998, primarily as a result of fighting between the (majority) Altaf and (minority) Haqiqi factions of the MQM. 178 people were killed in Karachi in June 1998 alone, with over 3600 people killed as a result of political violence in Karachi over between 1996 and 1998. Apart from fighting between the two MQM factions, the Karachi conflict is also the result of a complex mixture of long-standing tensions between Mohajirs, the ethnic (predominantly rural) Sindhi population, and the provincial government. Responding to the violence, the Government of Pakistan on 28 May 1998 made a promulgation of Emergency under Article 232 of the Constitution. In August 1998 Interior Minister Ch Shujat Hussain denied MQM allegations that security agencies were involved in the Karachi unrest. He challenged the (MQM (A) to present proof of these charges, and denied the impression that "agencies" were patronising one political group MQM (H) to crush MQM (A).
The ruling PML(N)'s troubled alliance with the MQM(A) in Sindh province finally ruptured during October 1998. Without the MQM(A), the PML(N) no longer had the numbers to govern in the Sindh province, leaving a clear path for the opposition Pakistan People's Party of Benazir Bhutto to join with the MQM(A) to form a majority in the Sindh assembly. The mounting pressure of a failed alliance and possible loss of government in Sindh, plus the increased violence, led Nawaz Sharif, on 30 October 1998 to impose Governor's rule. The Pakistan Armed Forces (Acting Aid of the Civil Power) Ordinance was promulgated on 20 November 1998, with provisions that included the establishment of Military Courts in the Province of Sindh. This Ordinance extends only to the province of Sindh and visualizes that on the direction of the Federal Government the designated authority would convene as many courts as may be necessary to try offenses tribunal under of Ordinance. The offenses include the newly defined offense of "Creating Civil Commotion." The military measures reduced the number of murders in Karachi. But oposition and human rights groups challenged the legality of the special military courts in the Supreme Court. And on 17 February 1999 Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled that the special military courts were unconstitutional.
