FAILURE OF ALTAF HUSSAIN

AS A POLITICAL LEADER

SAJJAD UR REHMAN

ROLL NO : 30

CLASS: BPA

1st YEAR

EVENING

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

UNIVERSITY OF KARACHI, 2019
 DEDICATION

I would like to dedicate my research paper to my parents

because where I am today is only due to their spirits

and untiring efforts and their sacrifices.

 PREFACE

My topic of research is “FAILURE OF ALTAF HUSSAIN AS A POLITICAL

LEADER”.I like my topic so much moreover I enjoyed a lot while researching on
it as it is a very debate able topic so this research may include some kind of
controversies behind Altaf Hussain and his Party MQM .I worked hard to gather
all the material necessary for my research work .Although I faced many difficulties
while collecting the authentic material, many books that I needed were not
available .I took the help from libraries, newspapers and research work of other
scholars to complete my work with authentication.
CONTENTS

CHAPTER NO.1

INTRODUCTION

2 Mohajir Community

2 Altaf Hussain

5 References

CHAPTER NO.2

ESTABLISHMENT OF MQM AND TRANSFORMATION IN IDEOLOGY

7 Establishment of Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM)

7 The MQM’s Transformation

8 Change in Party’s Name

9 References 11

CHAPTER NO.3

MANIFESTO OF THE MQM 12 Aims and Objectives of MQM 12 Achievements of MQM 15 References
17 CHAPTER NO.4 MQM’S POLITICAL FIGHT 18 Challenges Faced by MQM 18 Downfall of MQM 20
Conclusion 21 References 22 Bibliography 23
 PART ONE
BIOGRAPHY OF ALTAF HUSSAIN:
1[ALTAF HUSSAIN Leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Altaf Hussain was
born in a lower-middle-income household in Karachi in 1953] 1. His parents had migrated from
the Indian city of Agra to Karachi upon partition of the sub-continent, and were thus part of the
Mohajir or “migrant” community]2. Hussain became prominent in student politics from a
relatively young age. He formed the All Pakistan Mohajir Students Organization (APMSO) in
Karachi University in 1978. Hussain then formed the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM) in
1984, which claimed to be the only political party speaking for the rights of the Mohajir
community, centered mainly in Sindh’s major cities of Karachi and Hyderabad] 3. The MQM
fought the general elections of 1988 and emerged as the third largest party in the National
Assembly. Since then, the party has consistently swept both national and provincial assembly
polls in Karachi, and also showed a substantial presence in Hyderabad] 4. The MQM became the
victim of factional infighting in the mid 1990s, after Altaf Hussain announced that the party
would no longer represent the Mohajirs alone, but would work on a national platform, and would
henceforth be known as the Muttahida (or United) Qaumi Movement] 5. The two main factions of
the party (known as the Muttahida group and the Haqiqi (or Real) group respectively) fought a
vicious turf war in Karachi, and several leaders and workers of both factions were killed and
injured. In December 1991, Hussain escaped an assassination]6.
REFERENCES :

1.  "Phony Nobel Prize nominee linked to leader of Controversial Pakistan political group
deported". US Fed News Service  – via HighBeam (subscription required). 20 November
2006. Archived from the original on 11 June 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
2.  Baruah, Amit. "Accept Line of Control temporarily: Altaf Hussain". The Hindu.
Retrieved 16 March 2019
3.  "'Two-Nation Theory' a complete fraud: MQM leader Altaf Hussain" . Asian News
International. 24 February 2019. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
4. "About Mr. Altaf Hussain". Muttahida Qaumi Movement Official Website.
Retrieved 5 June 2014.
5.  "MQM Altaf Hussain's Profile". Elections.com.pk. Archived from the original on
22 November 2010. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
6.  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-23145377
 PART TWO
CHAPTER NO 01
Pakistan’s controversial politician
The rise and fall of Altaf Hussain:
The once-charismatic leader who could amass tens of thousands with one phone call has
been completely sidelined in the 2018 elections.

A
fter playing a key role in Pakistani politics for three decades, Altaf Hussain has been completely
sidelined.

1[Altaf Hussain is currently being held by Scotland Yard in the United Kingdom's capital,
London, on June 11, 2019 in connection with speeches related to his MQM party.
1[Saleem Ahmed’s* first taste of politics was bitter, maybe even a bit bloody. He had just come
home after spending an evening painting political slogans on the walls in his neighbourhood. It
was the winter of 1987, he was a teenager and the political party MQM was winning municipal
elections in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city.

“My father took off his slipper and went on beating me with it. To this day I haven't been able to
shake off that experience. I think that’s how I became an activist — in defiance of my father. He
wanted me to have nothing to do with politics.”

MQM drove support from among Urdu-speaking people who had migrated to Pakistan from
India at the time of partition in 1947. Many of them had come with little more than the clothes on
their backs. A majority settled in Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province.

Ahmed, like thousands of young men, began supporting the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM)
after attending rallies where its charismatic leader Altaf Hussain gave fiery speeches.

“Everyone wanted to do something for the party,” says Ahmed who grew up in a complex of
crammed apartment buildings known as Saghir Center, an MQM stronghold where graffiti on the
community gate announced it was Qila-e-Altaf (Altaf’s Fort). 

“Someone from the neighbourhood was going to an MQM gathering, and I just tagged along.
That’s how it all started for me.” 

MQM has had a near-monopoly over Karachi’s politics, its streets and many of its institutions for
three decades. 

Hussain has been living in self-imposed exile in England since 1992. He has not travelled to
Karachi in all those years. Yet his presence was felt everywhere with his portraits looming from
bridges and billboards, and his name painted on walls across the city.

For many, he was simply the Bhai —  a big brother — who demanded nothing less than
unflinching loyalty. 

Even from thousands of kilometres away, he could stir panic whenever he asked his followers to
go on violent strike, sending terrified citizens rushing home from offices, factories and markets. 
MQM drove support from the middle-class Mohajir community, the descendants of migrants
who had come from India. (AP)
He has been accused of ordering political assassinations and running a militant wing responsible
for hundreds of killings — mutilated bodies were often dumped in gunny bags alongside roads
whenever rivalry with other groups spiked. 

But in recent years he has lost control over the city. His party is divided into various factions.
And many of Hussain’s most loyal activists have either abandoned him, been jailed or killed by
security forces. 

While it was risky just a few years ago to criticise him openly, he has now become the butt of
jokes: memes and videos making fun of him regularly do the rounds on social media.

Many doubt MQM will be able to keep its hold over the city’s politics without him calling the
shots.  

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, Hussain was a demigod.

“One, two, three … by the time he said three, I swear I have witnessed pin-drop silence in a
crowd of tens of thousands,” Ahmed recalls. 

Hussain's meteoric rise was rooted in the ethnic strife that has marred the port city - and most of
this spilled out onto the streets. 

The Case of tea drinkers

On the morning of April 15, 1985, a 20-year-old girl, Bushra Zaidi, was run over by a bus in
Karachi as she crossed a road near her college.

As word of her death spread, angry protesters took to the streets, rioting and clashing with police
and burning cars. By sunset, some neighbourhoods were under curfew.

Residents were frustrated with rash bus drivers, most of whom were Pashtuns who had come to
Karachi in search of work from a province in the country’s northwest.

The headstrong Pashtuns dominated the transport business. Competition among bus drivers often
led to reckless races to pick up the maximum number of passengers.

That road accident became a rallying cry for MQM, which had emerged as a political party a
year earlier.

Dr. Farhan Hanif Siddiqi, an academic who has studied ethnic conflict in Karachi, says MQM
used cultural differences between Urdu-speakers and other communities to its own advantage.

"They would say, 'look these Pashtun drivers misbehave with us and don't give us respect.’’

St
arting in the mid-1980s Karachi saw violent strikes in which scores were killed and vehicles
were set alight. (AP)
Anger among the Urdu speakers or Mohajirs as they are commonly called had simmered for
years as a series of controversial measures by successive governments had left them complaining
about discrimination.

After Pakistan's independence in 1947, the Urdu speakers had a high representation in
government in spite of being far fewer in numbers compared with other indigenous communities.

Mohajirs were urban and educated and they were at the forefront of the independence movement
during the British colonial rule of India, says Siddiqi.

The country's first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, was a Mohajir and some of the biggest
industrial groups were owned by the Mohajirs.

That balance began to shift in the 1970s as a new middle class from other communities began to
surface, says Siddiqi.

In the early 1970s, bureaucratic reform fixed a quota for government jobs — stipulating how
many candidates can come from various cities, towns and rural communities. The aspirants from
Karachi saw the move as an attempt at sidelining them.

Around the same time Sindhi was introduced as a second language in schools in Karachi,
sparking riots.

But Siddiqi says it would be wrong to assume that these developments were helping create any
“nationalistic consciousness” among the Mohajirs. 

"MQM just ethnicised the discourse because if you look at the statistics, they tell you that most
of their complaints weren’t based on fact.”

The university graduates in Karachi avoided public-sector jobs because the institutions had
become politicised, he says. "Private sector offered far better opportunities from the 1990s
onwards." 

Similarly, other issues such as the dilapidated condition of buses or water scarcity concerned
everyone in the city and not just Mohajir-majority areas, says Siddiqi, himself an Urdu speaker. 

Yet those stats didn't stop Hussain from attracting huge crowds to MQM rallies. One reason for
that was MQM’s organisational structure. 

“They were able to mobilise people at the grassroots. They campaigned in neighbourhoods,
going from door-to-door to talk to people about their problems. That is MQM’s greatest
success,” says Siddiqi.
MQM has always been able to pull huge crowds but its vote bank has diminished in recent years
as it struggled to shake off its violent past. (AP Archive)
Born in September 1953, to migrants from India, Altaf Hussain grew up in a three-bedroom
house in Azizabad, where neighbours intimately knew each other and people often slept on
wicker beds in narrow alleys to beat the heat.

"My most vivid memory of Altaf is when he used to gather kids around the family house and
then mimic Maulana Aitsham Ul Haq Thanvi," says one of Hussain's close relatives.

“It was amazing how perfectly he copied the famous cleric.”

In later years, Hussain would often sing songs, make obnoxious expressions and show other
antics during his speeches.

“When I recall his childhood, I see him playing a harmonium. He was a fun loving person. If
there was a wedding in the neighborhood, he was there with his harmonium.”

In his autobiography, Hussain writes that he was first reminded of his Mohajir origin when he
signed up for paramilitary training as a college student.

He was taunted for belonging to a community that drinks a lot of tea against the more healthy
yogurt-based drink popular among Punjabis, who dominate the army.

Hussain first showed his acumen as a politician while studying at the University of Karachi,
where he had helped formed a student organisation for the Mohajirs despite facing stiff
resistance.

Even though the politics based on ethnic differences were nothing new in Pakistan, Hussain’s
rhetoric took it to an entirely new level as he pushed his followers to take up arms if they had to.
In the 1990s, Karachi saw a bloodbath it wouldn’t recover from for years.

A decade of chaos
Dr Noman Baig is associated with the social sciences department of a private university in
Karachi and his earliest memory of MQM is that of his injured grandmother being dragged into
the house, blood oozing from her legs.

She was shot during one of the MQM riots in the mid-1980s. “My mother drove her to the
hospital, and along the way she had to show protesters her hands covered in my grandmother’s
blood, so that they would let them through.”

After MQM’s arrival on the political scene, Karachi saw strikes and clashes between its activists
and the police.

The influx of Pashto-speaking refugees from Afghanistan, which Russia had invaded in 1979,
added to the anxiety of MQM leaders. They feared that Urdu speakers would face competition
for scarce land and jobs as more people settled in the city.

H
undreds were killed in a turf war in the 1990s like this activist of a breakaway faction of the
MQM.
The party’s hysteria reached such a level that one of the points in its charter of demands asked
the government issue gun licenses to Urdu speakers. 

In 1987, while speaking at a rally in Liaquatabad, the area where Baig’s grandmother was
injured, Hussain made perhaps his most infamous statement, “Mohajirs will have no good use for
their VCRs, color televisions and other luxuries, because these things cannot defend us. They
will have to arrange for their own security.” 
Around the same time, MQM began to arm its activists with AK-47s, writes Laurent Gayer in his
book “Karachi: Ordered Disorder and the Struggle for the City.”

The decade of the 1990s was the most violent in Karachi's history. First came a security
crackdown against MQM after it was accused of plotting Karachi’s secession form Pakistan.
People were kidnapped, dead bodies with drilled knees and missing nails dumped in garbage
heaps; some murdered by police and others by MQM as revenge killings. 

Around the same time, a turf war erupted between MQM and a breakaway faction: Mohajirs
killed Mohajirs, neighbourhoods were barricaded, and there were curfews. 

In 1995, more than 1,700 people were killed in Karachi in drive-by shootings or after they were
abducted. In December of that year, MQM militants killed the younger brother of Sindh’s Chief
Minister Syed Abdullah Shah. A few days later, police arrested Hussain’s elder brother and his
nephew. Their lifeless bodies were found along a road a few days later. 

More than 10,000 MQM activists were killed during the crackdowns, which continued
intermittently from 1992 to 1999, according to the party. 

One of the MQM unit offices that were pivotal in maintaining its hold in neighbourhoods across
Karachi and that often come under attack of other parties. (AP Archive)
Despite the stigma of ethnic militancy attached to it from the beginning, MQM was able to bag
parliamentary seats during successive elections. It was often the third or fourth largest political
group and played a key role in coalition governments in Islamabad. 
In poor Urdu-speaking neighbourhoods, where people lacked access to government officers to
help them in their everyday struggles such as getting a water connection, MQM activists moved
in to fill the gap. 

“There is no denying that MQM was involved in social services. That’s why when you talk to
someone in those areas now, they express a sense of loss,” says Baig. 

The poor public services and lethargic legal system forced people to take their problems to the
MQM — ranging from complaints of power breakdown and matters of divorce to dispute among
siblings over property — and the party was there to sort it out, says Ali Raza Abidi, a senior
MQM leader. 

“It also played an important role in bridging the gap between Shia and Sunni communities.
Whenever Shias used to take out religious processions, Sunni boys were assigned to give them
security,” he tells TRT World. 

MQM has also lost hundreds of activists and supporters who were killed by political rivals and
security forces over the years. (AP)
MQM’s fortunes shifted after it joined the government of retired general Pervez Musharraf, who
took over after a coup in 1999. 

Over the years, while Hussain continued to live in exile, his party became an important part of
the federal administration, with its leaders controlling key ministries such as ports and shipping.
It also won Karachi’s local government elections in the mid-2000s. 
But MQM’s social service comes with a price, says Ahmed, the former activist. “They wanted
control. They sold your little trouble and then cashed the goodwill in some other way. They
bought real estate at concessional rates, took bribes and forced their own supporters to pay
donations, which never made it to the party.” 

MQM had also become notorious for using fear to keep itself relevant. “So many times I
witnessed some senior worker going into a neighbourhood and slapping a kid just to show who
was the boss.”

That’s also the time MQM activists began encroaching on state and private land such as parks
and community halls. 

Dozens were killed on May 12, 2007, as activists of MQM and other groups clashed with each
other and much of the violence was recorded by the news channels for the first time. (AP
Archive)
Across the city, MQM was accused of taking over playgrounds, a public sports complex and
state property that was sold in the open market. They opened up marriage halls and allowed
construction of illegal buildings after taking bribes. 

“The notion that they were helping Mohajir youth, that they were helping us find jobs … that
was all hogwash,” says Ahmed. 

The downfall

In 2010, Imran Farooq, a close associate of Hussain, was stabbed and bludgeoned to death in
London near his apartment by two men who later confessed that they worked for MQM. 

Farooq was MQM’s senior leader and had been a founding member of MQM along with
Hussain. They had been together since their university days, when they formed a study union
that morphed into the political party. 
His murder investigation, which ran for years, extended from London to Karachi. And Hussain
was at its centre most of the time. 

Farooq had distanced himself from the MQM before his murder, and many suspected that he was
killed because Hussain feared he would emerge as his contender. 

“Altaf Hussain started to lose his grip when investigations started and he faced possibility of a
legal action,” says Omar Shahid, a senior police officer and author who has written novels
inspired by MQM’s politics. 

“The implication of the investigation was that Altaf Hussain was no longer untouchable," Sharif
says, adding that Hussain feared arrest since "that protection of being able to do anything from
far away was taken away. He was under a constant fear that his house and offices could be
raided.” 

More concerned about his arrest than the organisation in Karachi, Hussain began to lose touch
with party activists who were his informants and enforcers on the streets. 

The ethnic tit-for-tat killings and turf war for protection money that reignited in 2011 after a lull
of few years took its toll on MQM’s vote bank. 

“They weren’t able to measure the mood of the people,” says Shahid, whose father, Malik
Shahid Hamid, a senior bureaucrat was killed by a dreaded MQM militant, Saulat Mirza in 1997.

Relatives cry over the body Malik Shahid Hamid, a senior bureaucrat, who was killed by dreaded
MQM militant Saulat Mirza. (AP Archive)
The elections in 2013 turned out to be a watershed moment for MQM as it lost tens of thousands
of voters in Karachi to former cricket star Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party. 

“The ethnic discourse which MQM used had lost its emotive power. People were questioning
how can you be repressed when you are part [of] both the provincial and federal governments,”
says Dr Farhan Siddiqi. 
Although MQM swept the elections in Karachi, the loss of votes came as a shock to many. A few
days later, Hussain launched a tirade against his own leadership during a speech, asking activists
to beat senior leaders. 

As low-ranking workers slapped and pushed senior leaders, some of whom had served as
parliamentarians, the entire spectacle was captured by media. 

“That’s when some of the leaders, including Mustafa Kamal, decided to abandon Altaf Hussain,”
says a senior journalist. 

Kamal, who has risen from low-level worker to become a senior leader, is a former mayor of
Karachi. He formed his own party in 2016 after distancing himself from Hussain. Many of the
former MQM leaders have joined him. 

Soon after the elections in 2013, Pakistan’s military, pressured by businessmen and merchants
tired of paying ransoms to various political groups, launched a massive crackdown against
criminals. MQM says the bulk of the operation was directed towards its activists. 

Things came to head in August 2016, when Hussain went on a diatribe against Pakistan, calling
it “a cancer for the entire world.” 

Since then he has faced a complete media blackout. Within days, his trusted lieutenants
abandoned him and formed a new faction of MQM. 

MQM offices were sealed and hundreds of its activists arrested or killed in the military operation
that started in 2013. (AP Archive)
Hussain is almost alone now. His posters and pictures have been torn down. His diehard
supporters are in jail, and as one put it, “it has become taboo to take his name, you’ll instantly be
labeled an anti-Pakistani.”

He has called upon his followers to boycott the elections.

Why it was so easy to completely sideline Hussain without triggering any backlash had to do in
part with the economy, says Noman Baig, adding that, “1992 was a different period, 2018 is
different. The character of the city has changed a lot. Young people want to go abroad. There’s
growth in consumerism, and people generally feel MQM had abandoned its ideology.”

For Ahmed, the former MQM activist, there’s only regret for the day when he decided to join the
party against his father’s wishes.

“They used us. We didn’t get anything – no jobs, no security.”

Ahmed is now affiliated with Pak Sar Zameen Party of Mustafa Kamal, the former disgruntled
Karachi mayor who was once Altaf Hussain’s blue-eyed boy]1.

REFERENCES :
 CHAPTER 02

Karachi MQM leader Altaf Hussain feels

heat from military
 24 March 2015
 
Share

For more than two decades, Altaf Hussain has controlled Pakistan's economic capital
Karachi from his base in London. With the army now going after criminal elements in his
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), could that be about to change, asks the BBC's
Shahzeb Jillani.

On a pleasant Sunday evening in Karachi's Azizabad neighbourhood, groups of carefree children

are hanging out on the streets - some playing cricket, others cycling around.

It could be any middle class locality in this city of 20 million. But this neighbourhood is home to
the city's most powerful political leader, Altaf Hussain.

He has not set foot here in his modest house, known as Nine Zero, since he went into self-
imposed exile to London 23 years ago as the authorities were preparing to crack down on his
party.

But Mr Hussain is omnipresent here.

His house is well lit, well staffed and serves as the headquarter for tens of thousands of his party
supporters.

His pictures hang from electricity poles. His MQM party's tricolour flags and its election symbol,
a kite, decorate neighbourhood walls. Most of all, this is where everyone offers unquestioned
loyalty to Mr Hussain, or bhai (brother) as they call him.
'Violent and abusive'

Earlier this month, the neighbourhood was under siege. On 11 March a heavy contingent of
paramilitary soldiers, Pakistan Rangers, raided Nine Zero and the nearby party secretariat. The
soldiers went door to door barging inside houses looking for suspected criminals.

At the end of it all, they claimed to have seized a large cache of arms and detained a number of
wanted murderers, including a notorious hit man convicted in absentia for killing a journalist.

"They were violent and abusive," says a woman who lives nearby. "They trashed our place and
took away my husband. My children were crying. I begged them to let go of my husband. The
soldiers told me not to worry - they'll come back to take good care of me."

The Rangers operate under the authority of the federal government but are commanded directly
by army officers. They are a well-funded law enforcement agency and usually operate
independently of the police and the elected civilian government.

The raid at Nine Zero rattled the MQM leadership in Karachi and London. The Rangers said they
moved on the basis of reliable inside information.

"It showed successful penetration of Pakistani intelligence agencies and exposed cracks inside
the MQM," says a party insider.

Video 'confession'

The raid was the start of a string of blows the party has experienced this month. The same day,
an anti-terrorism court announced that the MQM's most high-profile prisoner, Saulat Mirza,
would be executed on 19 March.

Mirza had been on death row since 1999 for the murder of a senior government official in
Karachi.
But hours before he was due to be hanged, a sensational video of him "confessing" was leaked to
Pakistani news channels. In it, Mirza not only shows remorse for his crime, he accuses the MQM
leadership of orchestrating the killing.

Mirza said the order for the murder came directly from Altaf Hussain in London and it was
conveyed to him at the home of an MQM parliamentarian in Karachi. Mirza's execution has
since been put on hold - it is not clear for how long.

It is not known where or when the video was filmed. But most people suspect it was the work of
Pakistani intelligence seeking to pile yet more pressure on the MQM leadership.

Experts say the "confession" has no legal value.

It was filmed, released and aired as a part of the psychological warfare between the army and the
party, analysts say.

'Reign of terror'

It provided ample ammunition to detractors of the MQM who have long denounced the party for
its alleged "reign of terror" in Pakistan's financial capital.

The MQM denied the accusation, saying it was all part of a conspiracy to push the party against
the wall, yet again.

Over the decades, the Pakistani army has enjoyed a love-hate relationship with the MQM.

Some army chiefs, like the former President General Pervez Musharraf, promoted the party for
their political aims. Others believed the party had become too powerful and had to be tamed by
use of force.
Pakistan's current army chief, Gen Raheel Sharif, says he is committed to tough action against all
violent groups, be they militants in the tribal north-west or militants in the political parties of
Karachi.

His approach to sorting out the lawless in Karachi is said to be informed by the director general
of the intelligence service ISI, Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar.

Playing it cool
Before being promoted to the powerful post in September 2014, Gen Akhtar served as the head of Pakistan Rangers in Karachi.

In that capacity, he approved "targeted raids" against militants. During this time, he is said to
have formed strong views about the complicated dynamics of political violence in Pakistan's
biggest city.

His blunt assessment, it is believed, was that to sort out Karachi, you first have to sort out the
MQM.

The MQM has faced violent military operations, and attempts to split the party before. In the
past, it retaliated with violence and shutting down the city. But not this time.

Except for some emotional outbursts by Mr Hussain criticising the army, this time the response
has been rather timid and clearly non-violent.

In fact, the party has gone so far as to say it actually supports the latest army action, but that it
should be across the board and not politically motivated.

The party has been forced to play it cool because it is determined to avoid a bigger confrontation
with the army.
'In disarray'
The response also stems from a clear realisation that the party has lost a lot of ground over the
years. It has tried to reposition itself as a liberal, progressive party that has been most vocal
against Taliban militancy and Islamic extremism. But that has had limited impact.

Back in London, party leader Altaf Hussain is already under pressure from the British
government, facing a variety of allegations and an investigation into money laundering. Last
year, he was briefly detained for questioning by British police. His health is also suffering.

"The party is in a disarray," concedes a senior MQM leader. "We are still trying to figure out
what this stand-off with the army means for the future of the party."

Some fear the army's latest confrontation could be the start of a bigger project to cleanse
Pakistani politics of corrupt and criminal leaders. More specifically, some believe it is about
persuading Mr Hussain to quit the party leadership.

It apparently stems from the belief that for the MQM to carry on as a purely political national
party, Altaf Hussain must go.

"I have done everything I could to get along with this army. But they have never liked my face,"
Mr Hussain recently complained in a telephone address to party workers.

Like most of Pakistan's political parties, the MQM does not have a democratic mechanism for
changing its leader.

Altaf Hussain has remained leader since founding the party. Potential challengers were removed,
sometimes physically.

"If anyone thinks MQM is possible minus Altaf Hussain, they are living in a fool's paradise,"
says a senior party leader. "[If that ever happens] this party will disintegrate into smaller groups
and other, possibly more lethal, groups could fill the vacuum."
REFERENCES :
 CHAPTER 03 :

Is Pakistan witnessing the fall of Altaf

Hussain, the long-distance king
of Karachi?
August 27, 2016 1.18am AEST

Author

1. Nichola Khan
Principal Lecturer, School of Applied Social Science, University of Brighton

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 Protests in Karachi against Altaf Hussain, the British-based Pakistani politician. Rean Khan/EPA

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Even by Karachi’s standards, it is an extraordinary time in the politics of this complex and
violent Pakistani metropolis. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the party which has
dominated the city’s politics for nearly three decades, is facing a mounting backlash from the
Pakistani authorities and an internal power shift.

MQM’s leader, Altaf Hussain, has been exiled in London since the early 1990s, its deputy leader
is trying to sideline him by blaming mental strain, and the party’s newly elected mayor of
Karachi is in prison, facing charges of aiding militants and criminals. Meanwhile, for the past
two years the Pakistani military has been conducting operations against MQM in Karachi while
other political parties are demanding that the party should be banned as terrorists.

The population of Karachi’s urban conglomeration is over 23m, and the city itself is expected to
become the world’s seventh largest by 2030, according to the UN. It has also been called
the world’s most dangerous city.

Since the 1980s, MQM has been able to hold the city to ransom through a nexus of violence and
crime as it steadily gained more political power. The party was formed by Hussain in 1978 as a
student organisation to represent the Urdu-speaking “Mohajirs”, or migrants from India to the
new nation Pakistan during Partition in 1947. Since its inception Hussain has remained
unilaterally powerful, his hold on Karachi attributed to his famed, lethal, “remote control
politics”. In hours Hussain, who has been based in London since 1992 when he was granted
asylum during army operations against the MQM in Karachi, could command MQM workers to
effect a total strike, and through terror, shut down Pakistan’s largest commercial city.

In 2007, dozens of people were killed during the “Black Saturday” riots in the city. The
MQM has been implicated in the violence, but so far there has been little justice in the Pakistani
courts.

In September 2010, one of MQM’s founders Imran Farooq was murdered in London amid

speculation about an intended leadership bid. British police are investigating the MQM on
charges of money laundering and with involvement in Imran Farooq’s murder – but it has been
slow going.

 
Supporters of Pakistan’s MQM party clash with police on August 22. Shahzaib Akber/EPA

A torrid week
A sequence of events that begun in late August, has sparked a renewed clampdown on the party,
whose leaders have been accused of treason in Pakistan. It began on August 22 when Hussain,
speaking by telephone from London to a crowd of supporters and hunger strikers protesting
outside Karachi Press Club against the disappearances and killings of party workers, railed:
Pakistan is cancer for entire world … who says long live Pakistan? … it’s down with Pakistan.
He then openly encouraged party workers to attack two Karachi media offices. Although press
intimidation and censorship by terror is common in Karachi and across Pakistan, after the
ensuing fatal violence, a small number of senior MQM leaders were detained the following day.
Leaders of other political parties demanded on Pakistan’s permanently buzzing satellite news
channels that MQM be banned as traitors to Pakistan.

Incredibly, the former mayor of Karachi and MQM deputy Farooq Sattar swiftly announced that
Hussain’s incendiary statements suggested a leader suffering from prolonged mental stress, and
that the MQM would now operate from Pakistan alone. Sattar’s move was tactical, but sidelining
its UK leader was an unprecedented and dangerous move.

Then, on August 24, MQM’s candidate Waseem Akhtar was returned as mayor of Karachi, with
just one hitch: Akhtar is in prison on terrorism-related charges. The new mayor requested an
office within the prison, to run the city’s affairs.

Meanwhile back in London, citing health reasons, Hussain agreed to give power to the Karachi
leadership committee of which Sattar, as the MQM’s deputy convenor, is a member. Posters of
Hussain have started to be taken down across Karachi, and MQM offices sealed.

 
Waseem Akhter, the newly elected mayor of Karachi, who will run the city from prison. Shahzaib Akber/EPA

Increasing violence
The MQM’s control of the city of Karachi since 2005 has ushered in a period of
unchecked expansion of real estate development driven by questionable large-scale
land-use conversions and powerful political patrons. Since then, the Pakistan Taliban
(TTP) has rapidly grown and encroached into Karachi’s Pashtun neighbourhoods,
through violence and bombings, including in MQM strongholds. While the MQM’s
support base is overwhelmingly from the Urdu-speaking ethnic Mohajirs, the Taliban’s
base is predominantly Pashtun, from South Waziristan, Swat, and other areas in
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province and the tribal agencies. Since summer 2012 most of
Karachi’s Pashtun-populated areas have fallen under the influence of the TTP.

Violence in Karachi intensified when the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was running the
national government between 2008 and 2013. The PPP’s armed wing – the Peoples’
Aman Committee (PAC) – the MQM, and Taliban groups clashed around lucrative
profits from organised crime – extortions, kidnappings for ransom, and drugs.
Throughout this, the MQM has retained die-hard support from its ethnic vote-bank of
Mohajirs which has given it an unbreakable political hold on Karachi. Its “success” lies
in its ability to collapse many divisions between politics and crime and to encroach deep
into Karachi’s formal and informal economies.

Meanwhile, back in London, the situation has been hotting up for Hussain in recent
years. In the deadly run-up to Pakistan’s 2013 general elections – won by the Pakistan
Muslim League of the current prime minister Nawaz Sharif – a senior member of the
former cricketer Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehree-e-Insaaf (PTI) party, Zahra Shahid, was
killed. Khan accused the London-based Hussain of ordering her murder, and the UK
government of harbouring him.

The MQM London offices were searched, the BBC commissioned a film to investigate
the London-Karachi connection, showing chilling footage of Hussain regaling a crowd
with threats to encase his enemies in “body bags”. So far charges against MQM in the
UK, including money laundering, have stalled, while speculation about collaborations
with Indian forces to destabilise Karachi have spread.

Yet Hussain’s erstwhile usefulness to UK interests – vocally railing against

“fundamentalists” and keeping the Taliban subdued in Karachi – now seems exhausted.
This was reflected in statements by some British politicians who said Hussain should
not be allowed to use the UK as a base for inciting violence.

The seeds of demise?

Despite Hussain’s public tears, agonising, and death-threats, the MQM has consistently
won all elections it has contested in Karachi since 1988. As Pakistan’s third-largest
party, it also influences national politics at the centre.

So, regardless of the current clampdown, the MQM will likely prevail in Karachi.
Athough the MQM is registered with the Pakistan Election Commission in Farooq
Sattar’s name, its party workers pledge an oath of allegiance to Hussain. This means its
MPs in provincial and national assemblies are effectively answerable to the local party
workers who control Karachi’s Mohajir neighbourhoods through terror – on Hussain’s
command. On his election as mayor, Waseem Akhtar stated that his leader – referring to
Altaf Hussain – had advised him he was mayor of Karachi, not of MQM.

Sattar must now tread a tightrope between the army, Hussain loyalists, and Hussain’s
unpredictable, precarious mental health. Despite Sattar’s disavowals, violence remains
endemic and lucrative, and any desire by Karachiites for a communal vision of
pluralistic politics and political culture remains a hostage to political madness.
REFERENCES :
CHAPTER #04

Altaf Hussain's arrest: Final nail in his political career?

"The British government seems to have finally acted on Pakistan’s complaints."

PrismUpdated Jun 12, 2019 11:25am

Muttahida Qaumi Movement founder Altaf Hussain — who went into exile in the early
1990s — was arrested in London earlier this morning.

Although it did not name Hussain in its statement, London's Metropolitan Police said it had
arrested a man in his 60s "on suspicion of intentionally encouraging or assisting offences
contrary to Section 44 of the Serious Crime Act 2007," and "in connection with an investigation
into a number of speeches made by an individual associated with the Muttahida Qaumi
Movement in Pakistan."

Prism talked to experts about the timing and consequences of the MQM-London leader's arrest,
his influence on the MQM and Karachi's politics today and a legal perspective on the arrest.

"The end of whatever is called MQM-London"

—Zahid Hussain, senior journalist

I think it was long expected and finally the British government seems to have acted on Pakistan’s
complaints. After Altaf Hussain made that infamous speech in 2016, his support base in Pakistan
eroded and his comments provided an excuse to the security agencies to crack down on his
supporters.

His party is already divided and most of the members have already left him. So as far as his
political clout is concerned, it had already diminished and I think this arrest — whether he’s
convicted or not — will be the final nail in his political career.

This is the end of whatever is called MQM-London group, but it's still to be seen what happens
now.

I will not say who benefits from this, because we already saw in the last elections that the MQM
— whatever was left of it and its dissident group — was hardly able to win a significant number
of seats. It also depends on how the MQM-Pakistan, which already separated itself from Altaf
Hussain, will be able to reorganise itself.

If it can’t, then it’ll open the door for other political parties, and that’s something we saw in the
general elections; out of the blue, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) won most of the seats from
Karachi.

In the past, Pakistan lost some claims with the British authorities, but Altaf's arrest is certainly a
signal that the British government is taking Pakistan’s complaints much more seriously now.
It’s also a sign of a changing global political environment: decreasing tolerance for money
laundering and anything related to terrorism or provoking people to resort to violence.

I don’t know whether Pakistan has complained about anyone else, but there are some elements of
Baloch separatist groups based in London, and that’s one of the things Pakistan has always
wanted: for the United Kingdom to extradite them, or at least expel them from Britain. But let’s
see whether there is any progress on that.

"Increasing cooperation between both governments"

—Asad Rahim Khan, lawyer

There is no extradition agreement between Pakistan and the United Kingdom, but Section 194 of
the UK Extradition Act, 2003, provides that special arrangements may be made for certain
individuals.

This means that Pakistan’s government requests a citizen’s extradition from the British soil on a
case-to-case basis. The request is, in turn, evaluated by UK's home secretary, who is allowed
great discretion in arriving at any decision.

That said, we are seeing increasing cooperation between both governments, as was made clear
when the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding last month regarding the
extradition of Pakistan’s ex-finance minister over charges of money-laundering.

This also implies that the British government’s perspective of Pakistan’s human rights situation
has improved, which has often been — irony aside — a bone of contention for Britain.

Per the London Metropolitan Police, Altaf Hussain has been arrested "on suspicion of
intentionally encouraging or assisting offences" under the UK's Serious Crime Act, 2007, though
the statement also explicitly mentions Hussain's speech of August 2016, and that the department
investigating him is the Met's Counter Terrorism Command.

What remains to be seen is whether the case will be widened during the course of investigation,
as well as factor in the rest of Pakistan's many charges.

"Altaf loyalists caught between a rock and a hard place"

—Ali Arqam, Karachi-based journalist and researcher.

In the short term, I don’t see any implications for the MQM as two of its breakaway factions
have either dissociated themselves from Altaf Hussain, such as the MQM-P, or have taken an
anti-Altaf Hussain line, like the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP).

Altaf Hussain loyalists are caught between a rock and a hard place. Most of them have either
joined the PSP to save their skins, or they keep a low profile to avoid arrests. It's unlikely that the
situation will be favourable for them.

In the long run, there is disillusionment among the MQM's support base. The low voter turnout
during the last elections was a win-win situation for the MQM-London and new contenders, the
PTI.
For the MQM-London, the low turnout was an indicator that people have endorsed their call for
boycott, while the PTI emerged as the beneficiary as it secured maximum number of seats, both
at the centre and in the province. The PSP was totally rejected by voters, while the MQM-P was
punished for its poor performance on the local government front.

At the moment, Altaf's arrest has strengthened the PTI's stance. The MQM-P, on the other hand,
may find itself in a difficult position: either they speak out against the treatment meted to Altaf,
or remain silent.

"The timing of the arrest is certainly interesting"

– Zoha Waseem, PhD, King’s College London

I don't foresee the different fragments of the MQM aggressively reacting to this — they cannot.
It is also unclear at the moment whether or not a bail application for Altaf Hussain will be
granted and whether the UK authorities are satisfied with the evidence that the Pakistan's Federal
Investigation Agency aims to present.

In the long term, the MQM groups will certainly have difficulties in getting their house in order.
Structurally, they have been broken, and the new generation doesnt appear to have the same
allegiance to the party as the old cadre. It's really about who is going to occupy the local political
space ceded by the MQM(s). The Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan may no longer be able to break
vote banks and the PTI has little visibility in the city currently.

So while this arrest may not necessarily trigger chaos given that the Rangers are still operating
under the framework of the Karachi operation, it might encourage relevant stakeholders to start
strategising for the long run.

Altaf's influence has diminished over the past few years. This was obviously one of the major
goals of the Karachi operation, but he also did himself and the MQM no favours by not listening
to those around him and delivering those speeches, that too in such a heavily securitised
environment. I believe at the moment his influence is limited to his loyalists who are only able to
pass on his messages behind closed doors.

The timing is certainly interesting and the back-to-back series of arrests indicate a possibly
coordinated effort by the state to over-police political opposition and dissent in Pakistan. The
government and its patrons will claim this as another victory in their "war against corruption".

This is not to vindicate any individual who has been involved in corruption, but it strengthens
this triangular relationship between anti-corruption, national security and patriotism in Pakistan
which can be problematic in the long run.

Illustration by Rajaa Moini

REFERENCES :
PART 03

BIBLIOGRAPHY :
1.  "Phony Nobel Prize nominee linked to leader of Controversial Pakistan
political group deported". US Fed News
Service  – via HighBeam (subscription required). 20 November 2006.
Archived from the original on 11 June 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
2.  Baruah, Amit. "Accept Line of Control temporarily: Altaf Hussain". The
Hindu. Retrieved 16 March 2019
3.  "'Two-Nation Theory' a complete fraud: MQM leader Altaf Hussain". Asian
News International. .
4. "About Mr. Altaf Hussain". Muttahida Qaumi Movement Official Website.
5.  "MQM Altaf Hussain's Profile". Elections.com.pk.
6.  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-23145377