Tragedy in London

No country can emerge unscathed from a situation in which politicians are targeted and killed in such a manner.

The violent death of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) Dr Imran Farooq in London is a tragedy. Democracy in Pakistan is far too fragile to sustain such brutality. The stabbing of the MQM Rabita Committee convener and key party leader injures it just as it does Dr Farooq’s stricken family and supporters. The murder adds a new layer of tension to the political scene at a time of turmoil. New suspicions and new divisions will now, inevitably, crop up and add to our difficulties as a nation. No country deserves this and none can be expected to emerge unscathed from a situation in which politicians are targeted and killed in such a manner.

We do not yet know what the motive behind the murder is. The findings from preliminary inquiries by the British police are awaited (one UK paper has said that the victim may have known his assailant). But few will be ready to believe the death was a random street crime or a mugging gone wrong. In Karachi at the start of a ten-day mourning period, streets had emptied, petrol stations were shut and uncertainty ran high. No one knows what will happen next or what the full fallout from the murder will be. The MQM is currently not only a party in mourning but also an angry party, enraged by the killing of a man who helped set it up. The fact that Dr Farooq will return to Karachi only in death adds to the emotion. He had fled the country during the 1992 military operation and re-surfaced in London in 1999. The open grief displayed by the MQM chief in London as he visited Dr Farooq’s residence will result in still more anguish among party supporters.

The murder makes the likelihood of stability even more remote. A great deal will depend on the degree of maturity displayed by the political parties and especially the MQM. We must hope the leaders of the party have the wisdom to think of the wider good and the interests of a nation that is beset by crises of all kinds. One also earnestly hopes that the British police will unearth the killers of Dr Farooq.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2010.