MQM: PRINCIPLES AND CONSPIRACIES

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ISLAMABAD 000918 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/30/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER PINR PK SUBJECT: MQM: PRINCIPLES AND CONSPIRACIES REF: A. ISLAMABAD 786 ¶B. KARACHI 130 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Gerald Feierstein for reasons 1.4 (b), (d). ¶1. (C) Summary: On April 23, Charge met with Karachi-based Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) leaders Dr. Farooq Sattar and Haider Rizvi to discuss their party's stance against the recently signed Nizam-e-Adl Regulation, their ideas for a GOP response, and the potential for violence in the mega-city their party controls. Sattar said he had predicted the failure of dialogue with the frontier militants and advocated a strong military response. He asserted that, though part of the ruling coalition, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) had not confided any counterterrorism strategic plans and surprised MQM (and apparently PPP members too) with an April 13 parliamentary resolution endorsing the regulations. Sattar suggested that all major political parties approach the Army to request immediate action against the taliban. Rizvi complained that fellow coalition partner Awami National Party (ANP) was fanning Pashtun ethno-nationalism in Karachi, and still moving forward with plans for a controversial May 12 commemoration of 2007 intra-party violence. Sattar requested Embassy intervention to get the ANP to call off the day's events. End summary. Principles - - - - - - ¶2. (C) Charge met late April 23 with Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) leaders Overseas Pakistanis Minister Dr. Farooq Sattar and fellow National Assembly member Haider Rizvi. (Note: As Deputy Convenor of his party, Sattar is the highest ranking MQM official inside Pakistan. Party chief Altaf Hussain lives in exile in London.) ¶3. (C) Sattar was seized with the national-level extremist threat precipitated by parliament's endorsement and the President Zardari's signing of the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation on April 13. He proudly noted that his MQM band of 25 legislators was the only bloc to walk out in protest, though many other parties' parliamentarians privately applauded MQM's principled stand, Sattar claimed. Their defiance against the majority brought the MQM into direct and public conflict with coalition partner Awami National Party (ANP), he added, and made them all targets for militants' reprisal. ¶4. (C) That the militants felt emboldened to ignore the specifics of the deal which brought shari'a to the Northwest Frontier's (NWFP) Swat valley was predictable, Sattar said. The GOP had re-created a princely state, relinquished its jurisdiction, and was groping for a plan. He admitted, however that his party was not privy to the latest discussions; though a coalition partner, MQM "was not taken into confidence" before or since the April 13 resolution. Conspiracies - - - - - - - ¶5. (C) Sattar's focus on a national-level security response to the militant threat tracked remarkably with MQM Karachi Mayor Mustafa Kamal's more parochial remarks to the Ambassador earlier in the month (ref A). Turning to the security threats within the mega-city his party controls, Sattar complained about the ANP's planned demonstration on May 12, marking the second anniversary of inter-party violence. The Pashtun-based ANP was fanning ethnic tensions for electoral gains, he argued, and he repeated Kamal's request for Embassy's intervention with the ANP to cancel the event. Mounting yet another defense of his Mohajir-based party's actions that day, Sattar concluded "all parties should look forward, not back." ¶6. (C) Rizvi became animated at the mention of his hometown. He reminded the Charge that he represented one of the most ethnically-diverse districts in Karachi, and, therefore, one of the most volatile. He claimed taliban maintain safe houses and weapons stashes in Pashtun neighborhoods. Glossing over his own party's reputation for political retribution, Rizvi claimed his Mohajirs were out-gunned by the Pashtun. Sattar and Rizvi again asserted the conspiracy of Pakistan's establishment stoking ethnic rivalry, designed to keep Punjabis in power. ISLAMABAD 00000918 002 OF 002 ¶7. (C) Comment: Sattar and Rizvi have been unequivocal and uncompromising on the floor of the National Assembly against the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation, and, if not before, then most likely now, their safety is at risk for such public stances. While their perspective is tinged with ethnic bias, their claims about what is happening just below the surface in Karachi are accurate. Although the May 12 ANP demonstration was called off subsequently, the violent outburst on April 29 (septel) serves as an unneeded reminder of the potential for these ethnic tensions to boil over quickly. Despite their claims of innocence, we expect the MQM, with its own violent history, is prepared for that possibility. End comment. FEIERSTEIN