Excerpt from a story published in The News, August 19, 2008
Musharraf's insistence that he would stay in Pakistan is again based primarily on the calculation that until the two major parties break up he should be provided a safe stay and when they break up, he would re-launch himself, probably as a leader of the Karachi-led Mohajir population, with or even without, the blessings of Mr Altaf Hussain.
This streak of leading the Karachi political scene was more than evident in his recent visits to Karachi where he tried to create his own lobby of businessmen and mohajir leaders, almost to the exclusion of Altaf Hussain and his hard core supporters.
Musharraf's address one night a few weeks ago to a select group of Karachi businessmen, where his strong supporter Governor Ishrat ul Ebad was present and Karachi Mayor Mustufa Kamal made his famous, but mysterious, comment that within a few months the geography of Karachi may change, was seen by Altaf Hussain as an attempt to challenge him on his turf.
Within hours of that Musharraf address, his first after months of post-Feb 18 polls hibernation, Altaf Bhai had to arrange his own gathering of Karachi businessmen and address them from London. Why this need for a parallel event felt by the MQM headquarters in London was obvious: Mr Musharraf was trying to hijack his party and Altaf Bhai is not an amateur in fighting turf wars. Soon thereafter both Governor Ebad and Mayor were summoned to London for whatever happens to MQM men when they err.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
No comments:
Post a Comment