Graffiti on a wall inside the nine-zero compound, where I was treated with both extreme hospitality and marked suspicion. Nine-zero housed the MQM’s headquarters and was the heart of the ethnic political party’s activities for nearly three decades. Political graffiti is a common feature of Karachi’s landscape. This particular message calls for an end to the ban on media coverage of Altaf Hussain — the party’s supremo and “Father of the Muhajir Nation.”