My Mother's Thoughts On The MQM

Sometimes, you don't need these fancy schmancy PhDs in Political Science to get to the heart of the matter. This morning, I had the following conversation with my mother, proud Pakistani and Karachiite, eldest daughter of an Air Force man:

Me: So who're you voting for on Monday?
My mother: We'll see about the national assembly. But for the provincial assembly, I'm voting for the MQM.
Me: I'm sure that thrills Abba [my dad, by the way, hates the MQM].
My mother: No, he's very angry with me [my mother, by the way, has trouble with my sarcasm].
Me: Anyway, why're you voting for the MQM?
My mother: Because I know if they're not in power, they're not going to let anyone else rule peacefully. So you might as well vote for them. Plus, they've done some decent work on Karachi's infrastructure the last few years. Sometimes it's better to make the thief the security guard.

Yes, indeed. In fact, I love that quote so much, I'm putting it up on our banner.