Muhajirs Part - II

Side-effect
In 1958, martial law was imposed by General Ayub Khan. The rise of military of which Punjabis constituted the largest part, followed by Pakhtuns and Hazara-wals, meant a decrease in the powers of civilian bureaucracy where Muhajirs were over represented.
The General decided to shift the capital to a purpose-built city falling between Rawalpindi, where the army was headquartered, and Haripur, the place he hailed from. This was a clear message to Muhajirs that from now on they will have a secondary role in running the affairs of the state.
The Muslim League increasingly became a party of Punjabis during that period, with a part of the leadership aligning itself with the army rule. A large number of Muhajirs turned towards Islamist parties like the Jamaat-i-Islami and the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Pakistan.
Islamist parties were against the military rule due to its secular nature and maintained Pakistan’s nationhood on the basis of Islam. However, the participation of a segment of Muhajirs in the pro-democracy campaigns and their significant contribution to the progressive student and labour movements cannot be ignored.
Karachi received a large number of Bihari refugees from former East Pakistan after the bloodbath of 1971. Their contention was that Pakistan was created as a homeland for South Asian Muslims and not a country to be based on Bengalis nationalism.
This made them side with the West Pakistan-dominated army and suffer hugely at the hands of Mukti Bahini and other Bengali militant groups. They had no choice but to leave and Karachi was the destination. More than two hundred thousand were left behind to languish in refugee camps and could never be repatriated to Pakistan due to our internal political problems and ethnic tensions.
After 1971, the PPP government continued with a policy of strong centre with Bhutto’s political choices and use of force causing unrest in the then NWFP and Balochistan. However, on the socio-cultural plane, the government, the media and syllabus started appreciating and recognising different ethno-linguistic groups in Pakistan.
In order to provide educational and employment opportunities to the long-deprived rural Sindhi population, a quota system was introduced on the urban-rural basis. This meant a further reduction in government jobs for Muhajirs. Karachi, where more than half of the Muhajir population was settled, had remained separated from Sindh from 1948 to 1970.
It now became the capital of Sindh. Sindhi was declared the official language in the province along with Urdu. Sindhi-Muhajir riots broke out in the province. The administrative divide of Sindh for 22 years had led to a political divide for decades to come.
During General Zia-ul-Haq’s martial law in Pakistan (1977-88), the in-migration from NWFP and Punjab to Karachi remained on the rise. The quota system to ensure rural Sindh’s participation in jobs was further extended. Afghan refugees also started pouring in. All of this resulted in further shrinking of opportunities and space for Muhajirs.
Never realising that they were over-represented in jobs and positions of authority in the past, they now feared an under-representation in years to come. In the early 1980s, the Movement for Restoration of Democracy (MRD) began and Sindh became its main battleground. Muhajir-dominated cities remained calm. Although GM Saiyed, the founder of Jeay Sindh Mahaz, also chose not to support MRD, it was Muhajir docility that grieved the Sindhis more.
Zia-ul-Haq repressed country-wide political forces and encouraged regionalisation of politics. This is the period when we see Muhajirs, a community of people stigmatised by the logic of domination and in search of a source of meaning, concretising a political identity but claiming it to be an ethnic one.

(To be continued)

The writer is an Islamabad-based poet and author. Email: harris.khalique@gmail.com