MQM (P) convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui’s apology for the loss of 50 lives in the massacres of 12 May 2007 might have been taken with greater seriousness if it had not taken so long, or if it has not come at juncture when the MQM(P) had split. At the time of the massacre, the MQM was still united behind Altaf Hussain, even though at that point he had been in self-exile since 1992. True, Mr Siddiqui himself and the leadership of the MQM(P) had been in senior leadership positions at the time of the massacres, but his apology, given almost as an aside while addressing the Balochistan High Court Bar Association, fell short of identifying those responsible for the attack.
Mr Siddiqui should not forget that the massacres, mainly of PPP and ANP activists supporting Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, whose visit to Karachi provoked them, had the support of the law enforcement agencies, which stood by as the MQM rioted. The MQM was trying to support then President Gen Pervez Musharraf for ethnic reasons, but even before, was enveloped by a miasma of violence that ensured that its support would be accompanied by a liberal use of strong-arm tactics.
The party only was brought to heel by the 2017 split within the party, and the induction of the Rangers for a clean-up operation. Responsibility for the massacres was not assigned, and thus the apology does not really do more than renew old wounds, who have not healed despite the passage of a decade and a half. It cannot escape notice that the matter was raised in a city which itself has suffered much violence, the latest example being a bomb blast only a couple of days before, and at a time when the MQM(P) is being wooed by both sides for support in the opposition’s no-trust move. There is still a need to investigate the case, if only to bring closure for the families of the victims.
