Following are excerpts from keynote speech of Altaf Hussain, MQM founder and leader, at the international conference titled: India and the World: A Blueprint for Partnership and Growth, organised by the Hindustan Times Leadership Initiative in New Delhi on November 5-6, 2004. The Management of Hindustan Times Distinguished Guests and Honourable Speakers Assalam-o-alaikum Namastay Sat Sri Akal and Good Afternoon On behalf of my party and on my own behalf, I congratulate Hindustan Times for the Leadership Initiative series of lectures. I sincerely hope it develops into a successful forum to further the search for global peace and prosperity. I am indeed honoured and privileged to be invited to share the stage with some of the most eminent leaders of my generation and to offer my humble views before such a distinguished audience. It also happens to be my first address in the land of my forefathers and I am, therefore, particularly mindful of the historical opportunity to try and place my views on partnership with this great country for a better world. Ladies and Gentlemen: There are more than 190 countries in the world today. They all communicate with one another directly or indirectly. In this age of information technology it is not possible to conceal facts for any length of time. Common folks are in a better position to assess facts from fiction. India has made giant strides in the field of IT and is recognised as the worlds largest democracy. Soon after independence India got rid of the prevailing feudal system thereby strengthening the democratic institutions. The development of this democratic process not only kept the armed forces at bay but also provided a boost to education among the masses. General education brought about a middle class, which started to play its crucial role in politics as well as in business. The democratic process in India proved the linchpin for its industrial advancement, particularly in the field of IT. It is forecasted that in the coming 15 to 20 years India will become one of strong economy in the world, if the rate of progress continues. For a countrys partnership and growth it is essential that the economy move in the right direction. Before I proceed to take up the topic of the day, I would like to take the liberty of briefing you about the emergence, philosophy and the political journey of the MQM so far. We are the third largest political party in Pakistan. We stand for equal rights and opportunities for all irrespective of colour, creed, caste, sect, gender, ethnicity or religion. We strive tirelessly for tolerance, religious or otherwise and oppose fanaticism, terrorism and violence in all their manifestations. MQM is committed to the introduction of an entrepreneurial free market economy, good governance and independent judiciary capable of dispensing justice, transparent accountability, free Press and participation of women in all spheres of life. Our immediate political objective is to change the corrupt medieval feudal political system of Pakistan. We are, therefore, the only genuine party of the lower and middle classes, totally devoid of feudal lords and army Generals. The support that we enjoy from the people of Pakistan has been amply demonstrated in our performance during consecutive elections of 1988, 1990, 1993, 1997 and 2002. Having started in March 1984 as a Mohajir Quami Movement out of the frustration of mohajirs in Sindh, our track record today encourages even the Sindhi-speaking people from the rural areas of Sindh, who were led to believe by the Pakistan establishment that we would end up usurping their rights, are joining us in large numbers. Why then, you may well ask, are we a part of the Government, which perpetuates army rule by undermining democracy and its institutions. We have paid a heavy price for pursuing our political objectives in a country where democracy is controlled. Given the circumstances, which prevail, our desire to serve the helpless, deprived and exploited people of Pakistan have indeed led us into political arrangements which we are neither comfortable in nor would deem desirable in better circumstances. The choice before us in Pakistan today is not Musharraf or democracy but between army and even more army. The very religious parties created by the army facilitate to see through constitutional changes which debilitate democratic processes in the long term and on the very next day take to the streets try to make the world believe that they are the vanguard of the fight to restore democracy. To place our politics in context, I would also like to briefly touch upon the loot and plunder of the wealth and resources of Sindh and Balochistan, including the denial of their legitimate share from the federal revenues and ever so increasingly their due share of water, the consequences in terms of the stark poverty in the rural areas and the severe environmental damage are there to be seen in both the provinces. Ladies and Gentlemen: The scenario is so depressing that leadership of the day openly admits that the country would fall apart if the army did not run its affairs. What does it tell you? To me it signifies a telling blow to the very idea of Pakistan, a homeland for the Muslims of the Subcontinent, and the two-nation theory, which continues to wreck untold miseries on the people of this region for the past five decades. Muslims are fighting and killing each other on the basis of tribal and linguistic affinity, sectarian strife is worse than ever before. Mosques and madrassas are but flourishing businesses. The less educated the Pesh Imam, the more popular and affluent he is likely to be. The advocates of Jihad, a medieval concept to tame the infidel, are wantonly killing followers of the faith as they leave places of worship. Perhaps the idea of Pakistan was dead at its inception, when the majority of Muslims chose to stay back after partition, a truism reiterated in the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. If you need further evidence look at the plight of 300,000 stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh for three decades in their passage to the chosen land. Unwanted by both Bangladesh and Pakistan, they are led by an unknown destiny. Ladies and Gentlemen: The rights of the people who migrated to Pakistan from Muslim minority provinces of the Subcontinent were usurped and they had to face highhandedness and injustices. We formed the Mohajir Quami Movement (MQM) against these injustices. To crush our movement, baseless accusations were made and we were termed traitors. We were targeted through State oppression. In 1993, during the Army operation against the MQM, general elections were held. The Army imposed a ban on the MQM to contest these elections from a few constituencies to allow the armys created group to win the elections and to demonstrate to the world that the people of urban centres of Sindh do not support the MQM. On this illegal and unconstitutional ban, the MQM decided to boycott the general elections in protest. On our appeal, the people of Sindh successfully boycotted the general elections also witnessed by the international observers. As a result, the entire election process became dubious and then the high army officials requested us to take part in the provincial assembly elections. With assurances of free and fair participation in the elections - on a 48-hour notice, we participated in the provincial elections and the people overwhelmingly bestowed their mandate in favour of the MQM. If the charges of terrorism levelled against the MQM had been true then the people of Sindh would have supported the Army operation against the MQM and in the presence of Army they would not have effectively boycotted the elections and would not have given their mandate to the MQM. However, the peoples mandate was not respected and the State operation continued unabated against the MQM - and we were even not allowed to peacefully protest against this operation within the country. No one can prove that we have pleaded anybody elses case except our own at international fora including the UN. We did, however, seek moral, political and diplomatic support from the countries, which stand for democracy and human rights. My representatives have met officials of the US and many European countries because we were pushed against the wall and forced by our own government to take our case worldwide because they remained arrogant and hell-bent on not providing rights and oppressed us militarily instead of sincerely and meaningfully negotiating with us in accordance with the democratic norms. Ladies and Gentlemen: May I now revert to the topic of the seminar and with your permission to make references to our party wherever appropriate. The title of the conference India and the World: A Blueprint for Partnership and Growth has a welcome optimistic connotation. The themes of the future for the people of South Asia are indeed partnership and growth. Obviously, the first requirement for either to happen is that peace and normalcy must prevail. For much too long, Pakistan and India have been at odds. If we look around, we see unrest in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, Afghanistan is still looking for peace. India and Pakistan, being the two largest in the region, need to demonstrate magnanimity and the necessary political wisdom and desire to truly seek peace. If this be so, it should be possible to pursue a meaningful, sincere and a composite dialogue with an open mind. I wish to take this opportunity to place on record the sincere appreciation of the MQM, and my own, of the recent initiatives by successive Prime Ministers of India, President General Pervez Musharraf and all those who may have been involved or contributed to the same. It is imperative that the current ambience be maintained to enable the process to evolve gradually. We see the approach in first tackling the issue of creation of processes necessary for carrying on the dialogue as a wise one. It is quite clear that the necessary architecture is now slowly but surely falling in place in a manner, which would impart continuity and stability to the dialogue process itself. It is also heartening that a wide range of outstanding issues is being simultaneously addressed at several levels. I would appeal in particular to our Kashmiri brothers and sisters to show, at this crucial juncture, the necessary sagacity to allow the Indo-Pak dialogue to proceed on the basis of mutual adjustment and agreement. It should be clear to all concerned that there can be no military solution to any of the contentious issues, let alone the issue of Kashmir. Neither for that matter can resort to militancy and extremism. The mindless loss of lives, endless human rights violations and continuing depletion of developmental resources to deal with civil strife cannot be justified under any circumstances. As a representative of a persecuted minority forced to live in exile and to grieve the loss of colleagues and supporters day after day through extra-judicial processes, I can well understand the agony of the Kashmiris. Over 17,000 mohajirs have been killed including leaders, supporters and their relatives during Army and State operations. Thousands of mohajir families have been rendered destitute because either their breadwinners were extra-judicially executed, arbitrarily arrested or forced into hiding or exile. My 66 years old brother Mr Nasir Hussain and his son 28-year-old Arif Hussain, were unlawfully arrested in the presence of their entire neighbourhood. They were brutally tortured for three days and on 9th December 1995 and then extra-judicially executed. Both were non-political citizens of Pakistan. The total number of casualties in the four wars, including Kargil, was in excess of 13,000. Most estimates suggest that already more than 50,000 lives have been lost in Jammu and Kashmir alone causing misery and grief to family members, distorting the normal pattern of life and virtually destroying the local economy. Who benefits from all this? Can the people of Pakistan and India afford it? Can they countenance the diversion of these resources from their own development programmes, health programmes and education? Definitely not. Two million students are being taught currently in about 50,000 madrassas run by right-wing religious parties totally outside government supervision to promote a medieval ideology leading to the generation of 15 to 20 thousand new militants every year, year after year. Who will detoxify the society? How will they be reintegrated into the mainstream? I pay tributes to the Muslim leaders and intellectuals of India for maintaining moderation and not pushing the Muslims towards fanaticism and Jihad.