Altaf withdraws decision to step down as MQM chief

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain late on Thursday withdrew his earlier decision of stepping down from his post after thousands of his supporters persuaded him at a Nine-Zero gathering.

Speaking to party workers, office-bearers and leaders, who gathered at MQM headquarters Nine-Zero following his announcement, he warned the rulers against a possible repercussion if 'extra-judicial killing' of his party workers continued in Karachi.

He said the MQM workers can also resort to violence as a repercussion of their extra-judicial killing in Karachi and other parts of the country.

The MQM chief said that the party had no reservations over formation of a review committee to oversee ongoing operation in Karachi to eradicate it of terrorists and criminals.

He said he has no objection to arrests of the MQM workers by the law enforcement agencies. However, the arrested party workers should be presented before courts of law as no one has the right to take the law into his own hands, he added.

Hussain sought workers’ permission to resign from his post and asked them to choose any other leader. However, the party supporters refused to do so and chanted full-throated slogans in his support and to prove their allegiance to the MQM chief.

Altaf Hussain later took back his decision of resigning as the party chief, much to the delight of his supporters.

He said that three million muhajirs sacrificed their lives for the creation of Pakistan. He said the immigrants from India supported Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah in the 1964 general election against military ruler Gen Ayub Khan.

Hussain, who announced to sever his ties with MQM after his speech at foundation stone laying ceremony for Altaf University in Hyderabad on Friday, had declared Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah responsible for the ‘extra-judicial killing’ of 36 party activists.

The MQM chief said that he had never been accepted by the ‘Establishment’ as he was not a Waderha (feudal).

The statements came against the backdrop of MQM’s strike in Sindh against the killing of Society unit incharge Suhail Ahmed. Businesses and schools remained closed in several cities of the province including Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur.

Ahmed’s body was found from Mauripur on Wednesday.

The MQM chief, in today’s speech regretted that Muhajirs have not been accepted right from the time of Independence of Pakistan. The ethnic community did not launch a protest movement against the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) even after implementation of controversial quota system for 10 years in Sindh, he said.

He claimed that the rural Sindh was ethnically cleansed of Muhajirs. “There was a time when muhajirs were in majority in Larkana… now not a single muhajir resides there,” he said.

Ruling out reports that the MQM was preparing a list of traders who did not close down their businesses on the party’s call, he said that a wrong impression was being given by spreading such rumours.

He said a conspiracy was hatched to create a rift between Muhajirs and Pashtuns which was foiled by his letter to then ANP chief Wali Khan. Later, Ajmal Khattak and Ghulam Ahmed Bilour visited Nine-Zero to improve ties between the two major ethnic groups of Karachi.

He claimed that he supported Asif Ali Zardari in his rainy days when the PPP leadership was nowhere to be seen. In return, he added that Zardari formed Lyari Aman Committee through then Sindh home minister Zulfiqar Mirza.

Hussain claimed that muhajirs were taken off from public buses and moved to Lyari for torture.