Benazir adds new twist to bloody MQM faction war

The bloody rivalry between the two factions of the Muhajir Quami Movement in Pakistan's largest city Karachi has acquired a new dimension with former prime minister Benazir Bhutto joining the country's top intelligence agencies in opposing withdrawal of cases against leaders and workers of Altaf Hussain's MQM faction.

Hussain, who founded the MQM more than 10 years ago to demand rights for post-1947 migrants from India, has been living in self-exile in London since 1992.

In Pakistan, he has been declared an absconder. But a court in Karachi recently dismissed two cases against him in which he was called an absconder.

Hussain's MQM shares power with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief's Muslim League in Islamabad and in Sindh under an agreement in which the latter has promised to withdraw cases against MQM workers and hold inquiry into extra-judicial killings. But the Military Intelligence, the Inter-Services Intelligence and the Intelligence Bureau would not allow it without their approval.

The News of Karachi recently quoted sources in the interior ministry to say that these agencies have asked the Sindh government to provide them with details of all such cases for their clearance. Withdrawal of these cases, they say, would encourage terrorism. And now Benazir Bhutto, during whose rule most of these cases were registered, echoes the same argument.

When a Karachi court dismissed two cases against Hussain, Bhutto said withdrawal of cases against MQM leaders was unconstitutional and would promote terrorist activities in urban Sindh.

Nawaz Sharief is under tremendous pressure from two sides. One from Hussain, who has been insisting that the government must fulfil the agreement with the MQM, and another from the intelligence agencies, now supported by Bhutto, who oppose release of arrested MQM workers. These agencies are not allowing the implementation of the Muslim League-MQM agreement. Earlier, they had not allowed an MQM-nominated man to become governor of Sindh although it was in the agreement. On the other hand, Hussain had been telling Sharief to resign if he was not able to implement the accord, the newspaper said.

The Altaf Hussain faction has also been demanding that ''no go areas'' established by its rival MQM (Haqiqi) in Karachi be removed. The Altaf faction alleges that the Haqiqi group has been set up against it by the army. The present wave of factional fighting between the two groups is a fallout of the provincial government's efforts to remove the ''no go areas'' and release MQM workers, it said.

UNI