Wasim Akhtar’s Invitation to Qadir Magsi for Closed-Door Talks: What Is MQM-Pakistan Trying to Achieve?

These remarks were made by MQM-Pakistan leader Wasim Akhtar during a media talk in Hyderabad.

Hyderabad, 1988

Hyderabad is the same city where a bloodbath took place on September 30, 1988, a horrific tragedy whose memories, even 38 years later, have not faded from the minds of its residents. Urdu-speaking citizens were killed in the streets of Hyderabad, bodies lay scattered across roads, and heavily armed attackers reportedly roamed neighbourhoods, shooting Urdu-speaking people indiscriminately. Trains passing through Hyderabad were also subjected to indiscriminate gunfire. Newspapers at the time reported that more than 150 innocent civilians had lost their lives in the violence.

A few days later, newspapers published a press release issued by the District Magistrate of Hyderabad, stating that significant progress had been made in identifying those responsible for the indiscriminate firing on innocent citizens on September 30.

According to that press release, during the investigation, arrested suspects allegedly disclosed that the entire plan had been devised by Qadir Magsi, an active leader of the Jeay Sindh Students Federation, in collaboration with the notorious criminal Janu Arain.

Newspapers also reported, citing investigative sources, that Qadir Magsi and Janu Arain had provided the funds for the bloodshed and that operations had been launched simultaneously at 30 locations across Hyderabad. Reports citing investigative sources further alleged that the operation had been carried out at the behest of India’s intelligence agency, RAW.

Today, 38 years later, Qadir Magsi is once again threatening those demanding new provinces with extremely serious consequences.

MQM-Pakistan in Hyderabad

In Hyderabad itself, a city where MQM-Pakistan claims to represent the Muhajir and Urdu-speaking community, its leader is inviting Qadir Magsi—the man whom government authorities reportedly identified as responsible for the Hyderabad tragedy—to hold closed-door talks against the Pakistan Peoples Party.

What has happened to MQM that it now needs Qadir Magsi’s cooperation to build an alliance against the PPP? Is MQM planning to pursue its struggle for new provinces alongside Qadir Magsi, even as a well-organised movement for the creation of new provinces and administrative units is gaining momentum across the country?

For the first time, this movement is reportedly receiving support from the military establishment, and that support has received considerable public backing. The establishment reportedly believes that MQM could play an important role in this movement.

However, Wasim Akhtar’s invitation to Qadir Magsi, a staunch opponent of the creation of new provinces, to engage in negotiations risks seriously undermining this movement.

Qadir Magsi’s own words

Consider Qadir Magsi’s own views on the movement for new provinces:

“Those who are under any misapprehension should not force us to the point where we have to grab them by the ears and throw them out of here. Whoever does not consider Karachi their mother, does not consider Sindh their mother, and acts against our homeland will face no delay in having their head severed.”

This statement by Qadir Magsi dates back to 2026.

Questions for MQM-Pakistan

Will Wasim Akhtar be able to convince Brother Qadir Magsi, behind closed doors, to support the creation of a separate province for Karachi?

Wasim Akhtar’s statement sends an encouraging message to those forces opposed to the creation of new provinces. It suggests that MQM, despite holding 22 seats in the National Assembly and 38 seats in provincial assemblies, has bowed before nationalist leader Qadir Magsi—the very man whom MQM regards as a central figure in the Hyderabad tragedy.

Is Wasim Akhtar’s statement an expression of official party policy, or does it reflect his personal opinion?

If it genuinely represents the party’s position, should Urdu-speaking residents of Karachi and Hyderabad, along with millions of other residents of urban Sindh, continue to expect MQM and leaders like Wasim Akhtar to safeguard their interests?

And if this statement reflects Wasim Akhtar’s personal opinion, then, at the very least, the people of Hyderabad have every right to ask him on what grounds, and in what capacity, he invited the man they associate with the 1988 bloodshed to sit down with him for closed-door negotiations.

Will MQM Chairman Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, who also hails from Hyderabad, ask Wasim Akhtar why he extended this invitation to Brother Qadir Magsi?

MQM’s loss of credibility over the past several years, despite securing seats in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies, is no secret. Yet an invitation from a leader like Wasim Akhtar to Qadir Magsi for closed-door negotiations amounts to rubbing salt into the wounds of Hyderabad’s residents in particular and the millions of people living in Karachi and urban Sindh in general.