22 years on, MQM leader SM Tariq’s family await justice

LONDON: On 23 June 1995, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader SM Tariq was killed in the Federal Block 14 area of Karachi. 22 years on, his family still awaits justice and has appealed to Pakistani authorities to reopen the murder case.

“It is my family’s demand that the case of my father is investigated thoroughly and we should be provided justice,” says SM Tabish who along with his mother moved to London when he was 14. “Those who were active in MQM politics at the time of my father’s murder have said he was killed because he defied party leadership by supporting Azeem Tariq,” Tabish adds.

Prior to the high-profile murder of SM Tariq, one of the MQM’s founders Azeem Tariq was killed at his home on May 1, 1993. Azeem Tariq had earlier fallen out with the MQM founder and made several statements against him. SM Tariq had joined Azeem Tariq and supported his stance against the party's founder, according to MQM sources who knew the slain leader well.  SM Tariq had refused to send Khidmat Khalaq Committee (now KKF) money to the founder as he believed that it was to help the charity wing and not for MQM’s politics in London,” said a source who worked with the slain leader.

Since moving to London, SM Tabish and his mother Mrs Shabnam Tariq were active in MQM, but have now had a falling out with the party’s leadership. SM Tabish Tariq served as social media lead for the MQM’s London chapter and his mother has served as MQM UK’s organisational committee member and as a member of International Secretariat’s women wing.

In a series of social media messages, the slain leader’s son said that he had distanced himself from the London set-up after 22 August speech and what has happened since then has harmed the “cause of Mohajirs”.

He added: “We are proud Muhajirs and it’s our identity. My forefathers made Pakistan and sacrificed everything for this country. We can have grievances with the policies of the establishment and the government but that doesn’t mean calling for the break-up of our only motherland. Pakistan is my home and no one can take that away from us,” he said.

According to insiders, last week at the MQM International Secretariat, Shabnam Tariq stormed out when during a telephonic call to the MQM office, the party’s founder lashed out at her and made disparaging remarks about her slain husband. The MQM leader suggested in that conversation, said the source, that SM Tariq and others who had defied him met their fate.

Shabnam Tariq refused to comment when approached but SM Tabish through on his Twitter account said the “humiliation was unacceptable and when the MQM founder himself suggests that my father was killed according to a plan then there is more to his murder than we know.” Sadly, he said, my father’s murder case was not investigated and no effort was made. “I appeal to the government of Pakistan to re-open the case and help us get justice”.

SM Tariq was gunned down as soon as he came out of his residence in his car after being intercepted by armed men, riding a car, who sprayed him with over a dozen bullets. He died instantly. Until today, his killers remain at large.

Originally published in The News