Tug of war: MQM-Pakistan dissolves APMSO central cabinet

Party says decision taken by Rabita Committee with consent of current office-bearers

KARACHI: Amid a tug of war with its London office, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)-Pakistan on Tuesday dissolved the central cabinet of its students’ organisation, which gave birth to the party.

The All Pakistan Muttahida Students Organisation (APMSO) has been disbanded at a time when a faction of it has reportedly established a parallel structure while reporting to the MQM leaders in London.

The MQM split into two groups – one headed by the party’s senior leader Farooq Sattar and the other led by its founder Altaf Hussain – on August 23, a day after the MQM founder chanted anti-Pakistan slogans at a hunger strike camp outside Karachi Press Club.

Talking to The Express Tribune, a leader of MQM-Pakistan Aminul Haq said the decision to dissolve the APMSO was taken with the consent of current office bearers in a meeting of the Rabita Committee.

“The sectors and units, however, will continue to work as usual,” he said, adding that Rabita Committee members – MNA Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, MPA Faisal Sabzwari and the Sindh Assembly Opposition Leader Khawaja Izharul Hasan – will supervise the reorganisation.

Siddiqui and Sabzwari both have headed the APMSO as chairman in their student years while Hasan has remained its activist in his college days.

“They will start conducting interviews of workers on the very next day after Ashura,” he said.

Most of the MQM’s current and former leaders started their political career with the APMSO. In fact, the party started from its student wing under the leadership of Altaf Hussain and his deceased comrades Azeem Ahmed Tariq and Dr Imran Farooq.

Apparently, the APMSO is dissolved in a bid to counter the influence of London, or at least disowning people working for Altaf Hussain. A number of party workers have now started to discuss the split openly and have started taking sides with one of the factions.

The MQM-Pakistan leader Haq, however, refuted that this step was taken because of it. “No such sector or group exits,” he said. “The APMSO central cabinet was present in the meeting at party’s makeshift headquarters in PIB Colony where the decision was taken,” he added.

While requesting anonymity, an APMSO leader said the central cabinet had gone into hiding after the crackdown started against the party on August 22. “Some people who could afford went abroad while others, who have remained in the country, are moving to other cities,” he added.

APMSO chairman Sarfaraz Siddiqui is out of the country and had recently conveyed a message to activists that the student organisation was not part of the MQM structure and was independent in all its decisions. The message referred to the early days of the party.

An office bearer of the student organisation asserted that APMSO did not recognise Pakistan or London. “We see the party as a whole unit under the leadership of Altaf Hussain Bhai, and we are with him.”

Talking to The Express Tribune, the MQM-London leader Wasay Jalil said the MQM-Pakistan Rabita Committee had no constitutional value. “Altaf Hussain is the founder and leader of the APMSO and no one can dissolve its cabinet except him,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 12^th, 2016.