Leader of the leaders

All those who are biased, prejudiced, intolerant and self centered may not only disagree with me rather may even hurl stone but, nevertheless undeterred by threats and insults, I will prove in black and white that the person I am going to refer here in fact has undoubtedly excelled over our rest of the leaders irrespective of gender, wealth, caste, creed, region and language etc.

Altaf Hussain who heads MQM has proved for many years that he is the truly true popular leader in Pakistan and none could match him till today and I very much doubt if someone can cross him over in near future as well. He is an Urdu speaking chap who is born in Pakistan but his parents migrated from India meaning by that his roots are not dug deep in Pakistan but in India while most of our other leaders whether past or present had and have strong links within Pakistan and, of course, it is counted as a disqualification in political arena. It is quite but natural that people weigh heavily to those whose grandparents are settled at the place as against an alien migrating from another country. I, to corroborate my statement, will quote that our known politicians belonged to not only famous families like Bhutto, Junejo, Hoti, Sherpao, Achakazi, Bugti, Daultana, Laghari, Mazari and Sharif to name a few, but they also belonged to one particular province to whereas Altaf, on the contra, lacked on both counts. It is very much apparent on the face of it that all of them except have inherited large vote bank and have widely spread connections within the territorial limits of Pakistan which Altaf being an immigrant is deprived of such privilege. Moreover, all of the above leaders had and have money whereas Altaf unluckily neither belonged to landlord or even white collar nor middle class family and, therefore, one can very well imagine that he, being an empty handed, must have endured untold odds right from day one when he had thought to be a leader.

Who had not opposed and threatened him of dire consequences in Pakistan at that point of time can very well be understood even by an ordinary brute commoner without any deliberation and discussion? All those who thought themselves to be the master of others’ fate were, at least, shown mirror if not cut to size. It does need lot of courage and chivalry to confront those who had been in power corridors for many long years and it was too bitter a pill like quinine for such power magnets to recognize Altaf too as a leader rather very popular leader both among womenfolk and men. He must have to chew nothing less than steel to shine out as a popular political leader and that too within very short span of time.

Don’t we realize that from day one, Pakistan is basically an agricultural country but unluckily, rather very unluckily, our agricultural produce cannot even meet our domestic demand what to talk of exporting which is quite a sad state of affairs from each and every angle? Let me profess and tip that we shouldn’t take Pakistan as an agricultural country otherwise the more you think, gloomier you turn. Each year we are importing even grain which is the daily and basic requirement for each of our 180 million Pakistanis. Allah is great and He truly compensates for deficiency, if any, and if it is applied to Pakistan, it is proved to be very true since in absence of agricultural produce, we are a leading producer of politicians. Thanks Allah, even in the past we had extra leaders and at this point of time we have surplus political leaders. Alas! We are not exporting agricultural products but instead export political leaders to balance the imbalance and eventually maintain equilibrium.

Just two days ago, Altaf has addressed Pakistanis from his exile headquarters in London through telephone in connection with raising his voice against 86 years imprisonment slapped by an American court on Dr Afia Siddiqui-the unmatched inborn scientist. Years back, when he feared of his life, he had to quit Karachi and instead took refuge in London and since then he is there. Being too intelligent, he took political asylum there and eventually obtained British nationality so that is saved from the clutches of those who have enmity against him in Pakistan. He reorganized MQM and moved it’s headquartering from Karachi to London so that he can personally control the party from London. For quite many years he is addressing people in Pakistan through telephone and each time he pulls not hundred but thousands of people to hear him which is a big plus for him. He rightly rose to the occasion and gave a call to Pakistanis to listen to his telephonic address about Dr Afia. It is reported in the press that his address was heard by over 1 million people simultaneously in 60 cities and towns throughout the country from one corner to another corner which in itself is a record to be rightly reckoned.

Logistics to organize his speech at 60 odd cities, towns and villages is not a joke from any angle and instead it be appreciated since it needs lot of planning and organizational skills to make it happen otherwise it would a flop and failure. Don’t forget that the string puller is not in Pakistan but in UK and he has always proved in unconditional terms and explicit manners that it is Altaf and Altaf alone who knows how magnetic power he enjoys. It is worth mentioning that on the face of it, it looks to be unbelievable that he could pull such a mammoth crowd simultaneously and that also throughout the country but it is fact which simply cannot be denied even by his opponents. The beauty is that he is popular not only amongst Urdu speaking people but even those whose mother tongue is Sindhi, Punjabi, Pashto, Baluchi, Brohi, Saraiki etc listen to him.

Who disputes that physical personal attendance is more magnetic than visual personal attendance? I want you to just flash back and think of those olden days when ZAB in particular and other political leaders in general used to address public rallies within Pakistan and could undoubtedly pull thousands of people to hear him. Both men and women travelled from distances to come to the spot to hear their great leader. His daughter Benazir too had been a big crowd puller like her dad and cross section of society like men and women; young and old; educated and uneducated; rich and poor; city/town and village dwellers; employers and employees etc had developed immense interest or even craze to the daughter of the east. Not many politicians could match her so far as this particular aspect is concerned. Altaf was also very much popular when he used to address his party workers and lovers within Pakistan but gone are the days and people cannot see him physically among them. Not only this time, but very much strikingly, he is pulling the crowd far away from London for quite many years and it can very safely be penned that in future too he will prove to be the same.

Just a hypothetical situation-let us ask just a few like Nawaz Sharif who still boasts of ‘heavy mandate’ and aspiring to be Prime Minister for 3^rd time; or cricket idol and power hungry Imran Khan; or Qazi Hussain who is striving for decades to be in power but couldn’t go beyond chief ship of JI; or for that matter even, President Asif Zardari who will shrug off leaving the throne even after completing the present term to address the nation from overseas and check who tops and who tastes dust.  I am not sure if any of the above 4 mentioned will read it themselves or will be told the same by others but, nevertheless in the given situation, I very much seriously doubt that any one of them will take the risk of putting his honor to sword unless they willingly wish to immolate themselves.