Was MQM leader Azeem Ahmed Tariq aware of his fate in 1988?

Only recently, a ‘letter’ of MQM’s first chairman, the late Azeem Ahmad Tariq, was found, dated January 8, 1988, a few years after he got married and five years before his assassination, written for his first two sons, reflecting the amount of pressure the man was going through. “I don’t know whether I would be alive or around you when you two are in a position to read it, but here are some of my advices to you,” he wrote in the letter. 

In all, he had four children, one of whom he addressed, who was killed in a road accident at the age of 25 in the USA in 2016. Not sure if he was even aware of the letter written to him by his father.

The content of the letter clearly showed that one of the most powerful political leaders of MQM at that time, after its founder, Altaf Hussain, was aware of the challenges ahead. In a two-page letter, he mentioned the difficulties he was going through.“It is a first letter of its kind, written by a father to his sons at a time when they are not even in a position to speak, being minors. When will you be able to read it? I don’t know whether I will be around you or not, but always remember that when I wrote this letter, I was struggling for the future of hundreds of thousands of children. Many of my comrades had been killed, and mfmany were in prison. So here are a few pieces of advice for you to follow,” Tariq said, addressing them.

It was like his last wish, as he even advised them to look after their mother (his wife), grandparents, and asked them to become good human beings. “Khosish karna kay bara insan bano merely bara admi nahi.”

Even after 33 years, the mystery of Azeem Ahmed Tariq's assassination remains unresolved. Some people were arrested as suspects. I still remember the late Akhtar Siddiqui, one of the CIA inspectors at that time, who later rose to the rank of DSP, narrating the entire story and handing over the alleged confessional video statements of the accused. Since then, the case has remained a closed book. It was the first high-profile murder case under Gen Zia’s martial law.

While his widow, Ms Naila Tariq, confirmed the letter and its content, which somehow got lost and was only recently found, she told this scribe that to this day she really does not know what he thought at the time of writing such a letter.

She also questioned many stories about the murder of her husband in electronic and digital media and said, “I am sorry, but most of the stories I heard on TV and social media were far from facts,” she added, asking who would know better than her what really happened on that fatal night.

“I was the only eyewitness, but my statement was never recorded, nor after 33 years do I want to go into those details, except that Azeem sahb and I were in that room when the assailants came inside. They first hit me with a revolver’s butt on my forehead and then shot him,” she said, her voice choked.

“Azeem sahb always avoided discussing party politics with me, and even when at times I asked what was going on, he, with a typical smile on his face, said, ‘Begum shaiba, I always keep my political problems and politics out of home,’” Ms Naila stated.

Responding to the question, she said that a few days after the tragedy, two MQM leaders, the late S M Tariq and Tariq Javed, came to her and advised her not to give any statement.

“They, and even other party leaders, were always nice to me and treated me well, except for a few I had reservations about,” she said.

She recalls her journey with him as most memorable and said, “Even when he was underground during the 1992 operation, there was hardly a day when he didn’t call me. At times, even one or two of his closest friends kept me informed.

“I was not much aware of the political dynamics of MQM, nor did I ever ask him, but during those days, I found him worried and under pressure. Once, he even wanted to quit politics.”

Tariq’s life, politics, assassination and the aftermath, including the life of his family who now live abroad, is the story of a man who perhaps “knew too much.”

Most of the founding members of MQM either belonged to those who were doing their master’s from Karachi University or were in medical colleges. Among the few founders who are now alive, or one can say in the first batch of MQM, include Ms Zareen Majeed, Ahmad Saleem Siddiqi, Tariq Javed, and Aminul Haq, while among the senior members were Khalid Maqbool Siddiqi, Dr Farooq Sattar, Ms Kishwar Zehra, and some others.

MQM’s politics basically revolved around three towering personalities, i.e. founder Altaf Hussain, Azeem Ahmad Tariq, and Dr Imran Farooq. Perhaps not many people were aware of the fact that when the founding members of the All Pakistan Mohajir Students Organisation (APMSO), formed in 1978, decided to convert it into a full-fledged political party, Hussain was not even in Pakistan. Sources said some proposed the name of Tariq as head of the party, but the latter himself proposed the name of Hussain as party founder.

Hussain and Tariq’s political differences came to the surface months after the military operation was launched on June 19, 1992. Hussain, who had gone into exile in the UK in early January 1992 on a tip-off from the then chief minister of Sindh, the late Jam Sadiq Ali, was running the party from London. Before the operation, a major split had already emerged, led by two of Hussain’s closest aides at the time, Afaq Ahmad and Aamir Khan.

While MQM stories never die, and though many leaders have lost their lives in targeted killings, their stories remain mystifying to this day, including those of its two most important leaders, Tariq and Dr Imran Farooq. Will those mysteries ever be resolved? I doubt it.

While the politics of MQM had almost shrunk and it is no more the party which was once regarded as an unprecedented political force of urban Sindh, there are still many stories to be told about what really went wrong, that even the second most powerful man in the party, the chairman, had to leave what one can say was his ‘last wish’ for his children when they were still minors.

I definitely don’t know how history will remember MQM, its politics and its leadership, but Tariq was certainly one of its most influential leaders, and his political acumen may well have cost him his life.

The writer is a journalist and analyst of Geo, Jang and The News. He can be reached on X: @MazharAbbsGEO