THE MQM may have been established by Altaf Hussain to raise the voice of the Urdu-speaking people for the ventilation of their grievances, but somewhere down the road the MQM leadership deviated from this goal. With a huge and die-hard vote bank the Mohajir Qaumi Movement, renamed Muttahida Qaumi Movement, became part of the federal and provincial governments many times.

Unfortunately, instead of alleviating the sufferings of the Mohajir community by creating jobs for the youth, providing quality education and improving health services and other social welfare projects, the MQM put their workers on the payroll of many government institutions and made them work at Nine Zero. Not only this, these MQM-appointed workers harassed the administrations of these institutions to get things done their way.

Did the MQM sincerely serve its voters? The answer is a big `no`. Mr Hussain and his coterie amassed enormous wealth by all means at their disposal and worl(ed for their personal gains. That is why, even though it gave party ticl
The MQM leadership also blackmailed many governments and brought Karachi and other cities to a grinding halt by its unjustified calls for snap strikes, which always ended in acts of arson and the death of many innocent people. These forced strikes inflicted innumerable hardships on daily wagers and traders and caused colossal losses to the economy, and a culture of extortion and bodies in gunny-bags became Karachi`s fate.

In a sense the MQM was Mohajirs` worst enemy. It not only destroyed Karachi, it destroyed an entire Mohajir generation by arming them with guns instead of books.

Sadly, today a community that boasted of being the most literate stands isolated and disgraced.

Name withheld on request Oklahoma City, USA