Pakistan’s MQM party ousts London-based chief

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan

Squeezed by mounting public and government pressure, a controversial opposition party has suspended its London-based chief and appointed a veteran leader as new head declaring that the party could no longer “afford” the burden of self-exiled supremo.

The move came a day after hundreds of members of the Karachi-based Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party stormed television stations, clashed with police and shouted anti-state slogans in the southern port city of Karachi following a speech by their leader Altaf Hussain, who has been in exile in London for last 24 years.

At least one person was killed and several others injured when hundreds of members from the MQM stormed the office of the local ARY TV station before clashing with police who arrived at the scene.

His speech also contained anti-Pakistan slogans, which drew countrywide criticism - from within the party as well -, and subsequently led to a security forces crackdown in Karachi, and other parts of the southern Sindh province, late Monday night.

Farooq Sattar, a founding member and the MQM’s parliamentary leader in the lower house - National Assembly - has taken over as the new party head declaring that “ all the decisions from now will be taken by us”.

“MQM has already suffered a lot from [Altaf Hussain’s] controversial remarks. He, time and again, has made such non-defendable remarks- sometimes against the state of Pakistan- isolating the party and leaving the leaders and workers in trouble,” Sattar, who was among 25 students who had formed MQM in 1979 in Karachi for the rights of Urdu-speaking people, said in a news conference at the Karachi Press Club.

“Enough is enough. The party can no longer afford the backlash of such statements and speeches. Therefore, to make sure that these things do not happen in the future, we are taking the party affairs in our hands,” Sattar said with over two dozen party leaders, and parliamentarians alongside him.

“If such statements are a result of mental stress, then that mental stress needs to be resolved first. It would be better for MQM to operate from Pakistan until Altaf Hussain's health issues are resolved”, he maintained referring to reports that Hussain has been suffering from mental stress,

“"We cannot take the weight of statements that pose a question regarding the sacrifices we have made for Pakistan.", Aamir Liaquat Hussein, another party leader and a former minister said.

MQM initially claimed to represent Urdu-speaking migrants who moved to Pakistan after the partition of India in 1947, and has influence in the southern Sindh province. But the group has been accused of operating as an organized gang through alleged use of violence and intimidation.

The party has had a checkered history of love-hate relations with the country’s powerful army. It has born the brunt of several security operations with short and long intervals of respite since 1992

The MQM accuses security forces of a "one-sided" operation against its activists -- a charge the government denies.

Political analysts observe that things will remain confusing until the ousted chief reacts to this rare development.

“This is a first in the MQM’s history, when dissidents have not formed a splinter faction but have ousted Altaf Hussain. The fate of this rare move will totally depend on Hussain’s reaction. If he gives up, the crisis is over, but if not, the crisis will be aggravated”, Abdul Khalique Ali, a Karachi-based analyst told Anadolu Agency.

Federal Defense Minister, Khawaja Asif , however, expressed doubts, saying resignations and regrets were a routine affair in the MQM.

“We have to wait and see if this is a real change or just management to quell the ongoing crisis,” Asif told reporters.