Altaf to Rabita Committee: shape up or ship out

Announces he will dissolve MQM’s Tanzeemi Committee; warns Rabita Committee of similar fate.

KARACHI:

As he announced to dissolve his party’s Tanzeemi Committee on September 11, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief on Thursday warned the party’s Rabita Committee to shape up if it wanted to avoid a similar fate.

In a telephonic address to an MQM workers’ convention in Karachi, Altaf expressed his ire at senior party leaders. “The Rabita Committee refuses to step out of its comfort zone… have all of you forgotten how I roamed the city on motorbike to personally deal with citizens’ issues.”

MQM’s Tanzeemi and Rabita committees were last dissolved just after the 2013 general elections. The move was based on complaints of inefficiency by party workers. However, Altaf reportedly remained dissatisfied with the set-up of the new committees and was irked at the members’ failure to carry out their duties in their respective areas.

Speaking to supporters on Thursday, the MQM chief said government jobs of grades 17 and 19 were being doled out under the party’s name in exchange for Rs100,000 commissions. He added that MQM parliamentarians had also stopped giving out donations for deceased party workers.



MQM supporters listed out their grievances before Altaf as well, and said it was about time party leaders were held accountable. “They remain inside their air-conditioned cars and should be questioned about how they were able to get such expensive vehicles,” said one party worker. “They [MQM leaders] should hang their heads in shame… they treat us like servants,” said another.

All the while Rabita Committee members, who included Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Farooq Sattar and Nasreen Jalil, hung their heads in shame. As party supporters’ clamour for accountability gathered momentum, Altaf announced he would step down from the party since he could ‘no longer bear such a burden’. The statement was met with overwhelming emotion from MQM supporters, as they pleaded the MQM chief not to leave them. Without you we are nothing, they wailed.

MQM workers proposed members of the Rabita Committee be appointed for no more than six months – a suggestion Altaf agreed to – and urged the party chief to choose ‘honest, hardworking people’. The MQM chief noted that nominees for MNAs and MPAs, and representatives in the party’s units, sectors and committees were being appointed based on favouritism rather than merit, and expressed his displeasure. MQM supporters also urged Altaf to return to Pakistan and vowed that they would protect him.

During his address, Altaf talked about the 1992 crackdown against the party and said “not 15,000 but as many as 200,000 MQM workers would have been killed had I decided to wage war [against the state] at the time.” “Even today, Rangers officials are targeting MQM workers in the ongoing operation in Karachi,” he said. “But whatever happens to me in the UK, I will not bow down before anyone other than God.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2014.

Correction: In an earlier version of this article, it was erroneously mentioned that Altaf Hussain had dissolved his party's Tanzeemi Committee. The error is regretted.