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
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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
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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.

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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