Altaf Hussain asks why Mohajirs cannot be the sons of Sindh

What nation or community today in Sindh has survived
since Mohan-Jodero or even before?

The only way to attain Sindh’s rights is to enter the practical
field of committed, dedicated, honest, intellectual struggle

London – 13^th January 2008

MQM Founder & Leader Mr Altaf Hussain has stated that Sindh’s rights cannot be attained merely by talking neither the conspiracies to pit the people of Sindh against each other can be defeated. The only way to attain Sindh’s rights is to enter the practical field of committed, dedicated, honest, intellectual struggle. He was addressing the Members of MQM Sindh Intellectual Forum. Those present were Asghar Rind, Tariq Jatoi, Mohammad Zaki Advocate, Sajid Soomro, Anwar Alam Incharge MQM Coordination Committee, Abdul Haseeb Joint Incharge Coordination Committee, Ashfaq Manghi, Member of the Co-ordination Committee, Salim Tajik Incharge ISTC, Long Khan Joint Incharge, Members ISTC Nisar Pahnwar, Heer Ismail Soho and Senator Dr Mohammad Ali Brohi.

Mr Hussain said that everything in this world has its beginning somewhere. In the past utensil were made from clay but today they are made differently and their comparison tells us that there is a huge difference in their quality. Similarly, in the past, television, films and photographs were black and white but as a result of efforts, struggle and experiments today they are in colour. This means that every thing created goes through evolution with the passage of time. If one is trying to make something and is not successful then either he or she may quit trying or be persistent in trying and use their intellect to find out the reasons behind the failure and then overcome these obstacles and retry to make. The path an individual takes depends on his or her patience, will power, determination, devotion and his intellect. If one is not persistent and committed then he or she will leave a piece of work incomplete and get involved in some other work – as a result no work would be completed. For example, if someone has a cultivable land and his cultivatable land entire crop gets infested or is eaten by birds; he tries again but the same happens again and finally with a lost heart he sells his field cheaply. The person who buys, tries to grow and sees that the field is infested therefore, using his intellect decides to use insect killing spray over the infested field and conventional methods to keep the birds away – as a result, the crop is bumper and the buyer is happy whereas the seller becomes the looser and remains poor. The seller was kind, honest and hardworking but instead of trying persistently and using his intellect he lost the hope and sold his prime land to someone who was an oppressor, cheat and a conman who coerces the peasants working on his fields. If the honest seller would have kept struggling persistently and remained committed using his intellect then his prime land would have remained his and the peasants would have been saved from coercion. Similar is the situation of Sindh where conmen have cunningly made money, created their fiefdoms and enslaved the people– and those becoming slaves after making small or no efforts have lost the hope. It is human nature that if slavery continues from generation to generation then the majority of these humans consider it as their fate whereas on the other hand the so-called mullahs also preach them that Allah Almighty has chosen to give wealth to one and make the other poor, therefore, if someone is a feudal then this is the will of God and so it is if someone is poor. The result is that such human beings do not struggle to change their circumstances but accept their slavery and poverty as their fate and keep busy in serving their masters, kept under the coercion, kept acting on every legitimate and illegitimate orders, kept touching their master’s feet, kept considering him as their Undatta (god) and Wali (Saint)– and more so keep saying that it is the right of the Sain (master) to cover his inhuman and un-Islamic acts; legitimising the act of karo-kari, (honour killing) where innocent people are murdered; to save their land marriage of women to Quran; marriage of elderly lady with a two-year old boy or vice versa is not even considered ill. This even goes as far as if the feudal has liking towards a daughter of his peasant then he orders her abduction, when he goes somewhere then his cohorts make available a girl to spend the night with the feudal and then this girl cannot get married for the rest of her life.

Mr Hussain said that Sindh’s daughters, mothers, sisters, elders, youth and peasants are faced with this oppression and coercion day in and day out but the so-called Sindh nationalists have kept quiet over this oppression and are only busy issuing statements against Mohajirs. The fact is that these cunning, shrewd and scheming elements want to keep the attention of Sindhi people diverted from the real issues and are busy in creating non-issues such as old Sindhis and new Sindhis. He inquired what nation or community today in Sindh is living since Mohan-Jodero time or from the time of recorded history? People came to Sindh in different times and settled there. Today, many of the families in Sindh speak Brohi Language. Similar is the case of the Baloch and people speaking other languages. Some came here a thousand years ago, some came here two hundred years ago, some came here one hundred year ago and some came here 60 years ago. In spite of the language one speaks living in Sindh, the thing to look for is if one’s entire life to death is linked to Sindh, one earns and spends in Sindh, one remits money from abroad to Sindh, sides with Sindh dharti on the issue of Sindh’s rights; and when dies is buried in the motherland of Sindh. He asked, when a Balochi speaking can be the son of Sindh, Pakhtoon, Afghans and even those who came from Arab Peninsula can be the sons of Sindh, then why the Mohajirs who came from India cannot be the sons of Sindh who have totally linked and are committed their entire life till death with Sindh?

Mr Hussain said that certain elements are stirring up propaganda based on the word “Mohajir” within the contents of my letter to the Sindhi people, whereas, the entire content of the letter states that Urdu-speaking are committed to Sindh and are Sindhis. These elements meted out the same treatment to Sindhi brothers who joined the MQM as they did with the Mohajirs. Their homes were attacked, they were badly beaten up, their offices burnt down and were taunted that after joining MQM they are no longer a Sindhi but they have become Mohajir. These elements are themselves the agents of anti-Sindh forces and accusing all those Sindhis who have joined the righteous struggle of the MQM.

Mr Hussain said, “I had ideological differences with Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, during her Government my elder brother and nephew were martyred, thousands of my workers were martyred – but she was a daughter of Sindh and, therefore, tears came out of my eyes on her martyrdom, I pardoned the blood of my brother and nephew and prayed to Almighty Allah for His forgiveness towards Benazir Bhutto. I am not a hypocrite. I came on television and requested for God’s sake not to call Benazir Bhutto as killed but to call her a martyr.”

Mr Hussain said that we are following the teachings of Sain Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai and trying to grow the crop of love, devotion, unity and brotherhood. This crop is being infested by anti-Sindh elements and their cohorts, the so-called nationalists and they are busy in sowing the “hatred virus”. He asked, particularly from his Sindhi-speaking workers, would they loose hope and sell the motherland away to such hatred spreading oppressive elements? Or with effort, intellect, persistency, commitment and devotion keep struggling, detect and remove the “hatred virus” sowed by so-called nationalists; and then grow the crop of love, affection, peace, unity and brotherhood in Sindh. Mr Hussain reiterated that Sindh’s rights cannot be attained merely by talking neither the conspiracies to pit the people of Sindh against each other can be defeated. The only way to attain Sindh’s rights is to enter the practical field of committed, dedicated, honest, intellectual struggle. Mr Hussain paid tributes to the Members of MQM Sindh Intellectual Forum and other Sindhi-speaking workers and office bearers of MQM that despite all odds, losses and expected dangers they remained committed in taking his message letter to the Sindhi people – and this proves that whosoever holds the hands of Altaf Hussain once will prefer to die but will not leave Altaf Bhai.