Muhajir Politics refers to the politics and nationalism of Muhajirs in Pakistan.

Background

The Muhajirs have started many socio-political groups such as

Muttahida Qaumi Movement Muttahida Qaumi Movement (abbreviated MQM) is a name currently claimed by two competing Pakistani political factions: * Muttahida Qaumi Movement – London, a political faction managed from the UK * Muttahida Qaumi Movement – Pakistan Muttah ...

under Altaf Hussain in 1984,

All Pakistan Muslim League All Pakistan Muslim League (Urdu: ; APML) is a political party in Pakistan founded by Pervez Musharraf in 2010. The launching ceremony of the party was held in London, but the central secretariat of APML is located in Islamabad, Pakistan. Hist ...

under

Pervez Musharraf General Pervez Musharraf ( ur, , Parvez Muśharraf; born 11 August 1943) is a former Pakistani politician and four-star general of the Pakistan Army who became the tenth president of Pakistan after the successful military takeover of the ...

and

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI; ur, , ) is a political party in Pakistan. It was founded in 1996 by Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who served as the country's prime minister from 2018 to 2022. The PTI is one of the thre ...

under

Imran Khan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi ( ur}; born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician and former Cricket captain who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan from August 2018 to until April 2022, when he was ousted through a no-confidenc ...

as a secular movement, The literacy rate among the Muhajirs is very high in Pakistan. Although the Muhajirs were, socially, urbane and liberal they sided with the country's religious political parties, which were created and dominated by Indian Muslims, such as

Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP) ( ur, ) is a Islamist political party in Pakistan. It was founded in 1948 by leaders of All India Sunni Conference. JUP exercised considerable political influence in Pakistani politics during 1970s to 2003. Its stude ...

and

Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami (JI; Urdu: , "Islamic Congress"), or Jamaat as it is simply known, is an Islamist political party which is based in Pakistan and it is the Pakistani successor to Jamaat-e-Islami, which was founded in colonial India in 1941. I ...

History

1947-1958

The Muhajirs of Pakistan are largely settled in the

Sindh Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...

, particularly in the province's capital,

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

, where the Muhajirs are in a majority. As a result of the Muhajir domination of major Sindhi cities, there were been tensions between Muhajirs and the native

Sindhis Sindhis ( sd, سنڌي Perso-Arabic: सिन्धी Devanagari; ) are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group who speak the Sindhi language and are native to the province of Sindh in Pakistan. After the partition of British Indian empire in 1947, man ...

. The Muhajirs, upon their arrival in Pakistan, soon joined the Punjabi-dominated ruling elite of the country due to their high rates of education and urban background. They possessed the required expertise for running Pakistan's nascent bureaucracy and economy.

1958–1965

From 1958 till the death of

Fatima Jinnah Fatima Jinnah ( ur, ; 31 July 1893 – 9 July 1967), widely known as Māder-e Millat ("Mother of the Nation"), was a Pakistani stateswoman, politician, dental surgeon and one of the leading founders of Pakistan. She was the younger sister of ...

the Muhajirs supported Fatima Jinnah. The Muhajir diaspora was upset by Khan’s ideas on institutional framework, and they voted for

over

Ayub Khan Ayub Khan is a compound masculine name; Ayub is the Arabic version of the name of the Biblical figure Job, while Khan or Khaan is taken from the title used first by the Mongol rulers and then, in particular, their Islamic and Persian-influenced s ...

in the first general election in 1964. As a result, Khan’s victory and the ensuing confrontations in Karachi between Muhajirs and Pashtuns fostered a sense of unease.

1965–1971

With Muhajirs already angry with Ayub Khan after he defeated or allegedly rigged elections, the youth backed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto after he left Ayub's cabinet. Another reason for their support to Bhutto was his anti-India stance, as migrants from India had come to Pakistan it was but a natural reaction.

1971–1988

The

1970 Pakistani general election General elections were held in Pakistan on 7 December 1970 to elect members of the National Assembly. They were the first general elections since the independence of Pakistan and ultimately the only ones held prior to the independence of Bang ...

on 7 December 1970, saw the emergence of the Bengali dominated

Awami League In Urdu language, Awami is the adjectival form for '' Awam'', the Urdu language word for common people. The adjective appears in the following proper names: *Awami Colony, a neighbourhood of Landhi Town in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan *Awami Front, wa ...

, which won the elections. When an ethnic Sindhi,

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Zulfikar (or Zulfiqar) Ali Bhutto ( ur, , sd, ذوالفقار علي ڀٽو; 5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979), also known as Quaid-e-Awam ("the People's Leader"), was a Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the fourth ...

, became the country's prime minister in December 1971, after the

1971 Indo-Pakistani War * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Jan ...

the Muhajirs feared that they would be further side-lined, this time by the economic and political resurgence of

under Bhutto. The Muhajirs voted for

and

Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP) ( ur, ) is a Islamist political party in Pakistan. It was founded in 1948 by leaders of All India Sunni Conference. JUP exercised considerable political influence in Pakistani politics during 1970s to 2003. Its stude ...

. Muhajirs had decisively lost their place in the ruling elite, but they were still an economic force to reckon with (especially in Urban Sindh).

References

{{Reflist Muhajir politics