Muhajir Province (Linguist Movement)

In 1954, the Muhajir Politician Mahmud-ul-Haq Usmani proposed the Muhajir Province and demanded Karachi as an separate province for Muhajirs.[5] This idea was later revived by Muhajir nationalist Politician Altaf Hussain the founder and leader of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) which is currently active as an Muttahida Qaumi Movement – London (MQM-L).[6]. Upon the creation of Pakistan in 1947, millions of refugees and migrants from India made Karachi their new home, settling alongside the native Sindhi population. They identified themselves as muhajirs and have since been part of the long process of assimilation into Pakistan’s multiethnic, multilingual, Islamic republic. The political mobilisation of the group has led to the formation of a number of Muhajir parties, the strongest of which remains the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM). Over the years, the Mohajir population and the MQM have evolved, learning to adapt and respond to a social environment that is largely influenced by the volatile relationship between civilian, military and Islamic institutions. This paper traces the nature of Muhajir nationalism from its inception to where it stands today, and explores the shape it could take in the future.[7][8]

Over the years, Pashtuns, Punjabis and migrants from Afghanistan and East Pakistan (Bangladesh) settled in Karachi. The increasing population of the city resulted in competition for resources, and the Muhajirs found themselves at repeated odds with the Sindhis, Punjabis and Pashtuns and other ethnic groups of the country.[9] Since 1954 the tensions raised between the Sindhis and Muhajirs over province as both are the main ethnic groups of karachi, the Sindhi nationalists strongly opposed the Muhajir Province movement and in 1988 thousands of Muhajirs killed in Hyderabad, Sindh by Sindhi nationalists for demanding separate province in Sindh. The Altaf Hussain blamed Pakistani establishment and Pakistan's main intelligence agency for orchestrating the massacre he believed that the Sindhi nationalists are sponsored by establishment to suppressed the muhajir province movement, however the government denied the allegations of Altaf and condemned the massacre.[10][11]In the Ayub Khan’s arrival in 1958 set in motion the relative decline of the Muhajirs, especially after the capital of the Pakistan was shifted from Karachi to Islamabad. Khan’s policies about administrative structure infuriated the community and tilted their support towards Fatima Jinnah, against Khan, in the first presidential election in 1964. Thus, Khan’s victory and subsequent clashes between the Muhajirs and Pashtuns in Karachi triggered a sense of alienation among the community.[12] Another major contributing factor behind the political mobilization of MQM among the Muhajirs was a feeling of insecurity due to the mass arrival of weaponry in Karachi during the Soviet-Afghan war and criminal groups proceeding to incite ethnic riots between Pashtuns, Punjabi, Sindhis and Balochs and the Muhajirs throughout the 1980's.[13]

In 2012 there was an unexplained, mysterious, political development in Karachi, and partly in Hyderabad, where a hitherto unknown organisation has started a campaign for the creation of a separate province. It began with some wall chalking (graffiti) on the main thoroughfares for a ‘muhajir suba’.[14]

On 11 March 2015, Pakistan Rangers carried out a raid at Nine Zero, the headquarters of MQM in Nine Zero, Karachi as well as the party’s public secretariat, Khursheed Begum Memorial Hall, recovered small and heavy weapons and arrested over 100+ activists of MQM.[15] In August 2016, after the Altaf Hussain's 22 August hate speech against Pakistan's Establishment leds riots and unrest the Government of Pakistan declared MQM as an proscribed party and military launched crack down on the party leadership and party headquarters in Nine Zero, Karachi was sealed by military and Pakistan Rangers the party's leaders including Farooq Sattar were arrested and disappeared by Pakistan Rangers and intelligence agencies, and most elected parliamentarians in the MQM were forced to disassociate themselves from Altaf Hussain and his party. MQM-L terminated the Farooq Sattar's party membership for party rules violations, Which resulted in him forming his own separate "establishment-sponsored" party faction Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) after release from custody by the Pakistan Rangers.[16] MQM-P also supports the idea of Muhajir Province through peaceful and democratic struggle opposing violence.