Daily Times Editorial Dec 16, 2012

Contempt notice to Altaf The Supreme Court (SC) has issued a contempt of court notice to MQM chief Altaf Hussain regarding his combative December 2 speech, in which he passed critical and even threatening remarks against SC judges. The notice says the remarks are tantamount to interference with and obstruction of the court’s process by advancing threats to the judges, bringing them into hatred, ridicule and contempt. Further, the notice says on account of such assertions, the process of the court was likely to be prejudiced in relation to the implementation of the issues arising out of the court’s directions in the Watan Party case verdict of October 6, 2011 and the orders of November 1, 26 and 28, 2012 for the implementation of the court’s directions in the Karachi target killings and law and order case. The notice is to be sent to Altaf Hussain through the foreign office and a copy delivered to the party’s leader in Pakistan, Dr Farooq Sattar, at the MQM’s headquarters in Karachi. Whereas Altaf has responded by saying he would file a reply to the court after legal consultations and asked his followers to remain calm and not react, since Friday armed men have been indulging in aerial firing in Karachi, Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas to ensure a closure of these cities. The MQM leadership has distanced itself from these developments but suspicions linger that this was the work of Altaf’s followers and no one else. In the speech of December 2, Altaf Hussain had not only criticised the verdicts of the SC on delimitation of constituencies in Karachi and the re-verification of the voters’ lists with the help of the army and Frontier Corps (FC), but gone so far as to ask the SC judges to apologise or face the consequences. A subsequent address to his followers on December 14 tried to repair some of the hurt by the MQM supremo saying he respected the judiciary, but the rush of blood on December 2 had already done the damage. The issues at stake in the two verdicts relate to the gerrymandering of the constituencies in Karachi to advantage the MQM during Musharraf’s regime and the voters’ lists issue has arisen because close to three million voters who reside in Karachi and have been voting in elections there over the years have been ‘removed’ from the Karachi voters’ lists and re-registered in their places of origin, effectively disenfranchising them. The SC’s verdicts seem to have been read by Altaf as an attack on the ‘privileges’ the MQM has enjoyed in Karachi for over thee decades, which have allowed it to retain its grip over the metropolis’ affairs. The confrontation with the SC is not the only trouble afflicting the MQM these days. Its once prominent leader Imran Farooq’s murder in London is under investigation by Scotland Yard, which raided the MQM’s head office in London the other day, an event Altaf tried to repaint as the MQM’s willing cooperation with the investigation. The affair has been made murkier by the fact that the two alleged assassins were arrested in Karachi some time ago but nothing has been heard since about their whereabouts or fate. Naturally the British authorities were very keen to interview the suspects, but reports state they were not allowed access. Meanwhile back home there is a murder charge against the top leadership of the MQM related to the killing of three MQM-Haqiqi leaders in Karachi not so long ago. All in all, one may be forgiven for thinking that the party has fallen on bad days. While the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is gearing up to consult about 20 political parties on the issue of delimitation of constituencies and has written to the executive authorities for the army and FC’s help in re-verifying the voters’ list in Karachi, the SC is once again querying the recent increase once again in target killings in Karachi, the original cause of its verdict on the law and order situation of the city. It remains to be seen how all this pans out, but it is unlikely Altaf Hussain will appear before the SC on the summons date of January 7 or anytime soon after that. However, with the SC determined to see its verdicts on Karachi implemented and the ECP following its directives to the letter, the days of the MQM getting away literally with blue murder in the city may be coming to an end.