Workers may revolt if Musharraf takes over MQM

Former APMSO leader believes Farooq Sattar’s announcement was inevitable

KARACHI: If reports about MQM-Pakistan’s bid to replace APML chief Pervez Musharraf as its new chief are accurate, the party could possibly face an internal revolt, with a number of workers pouring out their pent-up rage against the top cadre.

The same workers scarcely grumbled when the party’s leadership dissociated itself from Altaf Hussain – would

Until now, the party workers thought that the manoeuvre to divorce the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) founder was simply a desperate political stunt to escape a potential ban.



The August 23 news conference was perhaps the hardest decision ever taken by the party leader -- and it was even harder for the workers, who looked up to the MQM chief as their “spiritual leader”. They were, however, appeased only when the Pakistan-based leadership clarified its stance.

But having Musharraf onboard will add credence to what the London-based leaders have been saying all along about their Pakistani counterparts about the split: they betrayed the party’s founder.

“No such decision by the party leadership will be accepted. Altaf Bhai was, and still is, our leader. The decision of dissociating from him was a desperate move,” says an MQM worker, who previously held the post of a joint in-charge at one of the party’s sector offices.

“If Farooq Bhai had not done so, the party would have had to face the worst crackdown (in its history). The party itself could have been banned. This strategy proved successful, we are (out) in the streets albeit with lesser power,” he says.

The MQM, some claimed, was a political party where even a common worker could get hold of the chief who lived in self-imposed exile in London via fax or other means of communication. This system, they maintained, was so powerful that even the party’s top cadre feared consequences if they did something wrong. Its effectiveness, however, degraded over time in the wake of Altaf Hussain’s declining health and his companions in Edgware office gained greater control.



A former leader of the All Pakistan Muttahida Students Organization, MQM’s student wing, explained that Sattar’s announcement was inevitable. “Who could have owned Altaf Bhai’s comments?” he stressed.

Workers, he said, reporting to Farooq Sattar’s faction “are convinced that Altaf is no longer in the driving seat, but Nadeem Nusrat, M. Anwar and others, who are promoting someone else’s agenda and interested in just minting money”.

Meanwhile, MQM-Pakistan’s spokesperson, Aminul Haq, said: “The release of a video by Musharraf-led All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) leader Ahmed Raza Kasuri, the emergence of Khawaja Izharul Hasan’s pictures with the former military ruler at a meeting in Dubai, the appearance of APML graffiti in Karachi and news making rounds that a deal is close to be struck are all part of an organised disinformation campaign launched against the party.”

Haq said that MQM-Pakistan “categorically rejects such an alliance and all (such) rumours are part of a prolonged campaign against the party”.

“The MQM remains unified … under Dr Farooq Sattar,” he maintained, denying reports that the party was about to join Pakistan Peoples Party on the treasury benches in the Sindh Assembly.

According to the MQM leader, the poster and banner campaign was being run by the same people who wished that the party was banned after August 22. He did not specify.



He said: “Now they are spreading misinformation to hinder MQM’s political struggle,” he maintained.

APML leader Ahmed Raza Kasuri was not immediately available for comment.

MQM activists contended that a number of party workers were in touch with London-based leaders via web and cell phone applications. This tendency is stronger in Hyderabad, they said.

Almost the entire party structure in Karachi was under Dr Farooq Sattar’s control, they said.

“The struggle for ascendancy is more pronounced in APMSO where London and Pakistan factions have both intensified their efforts to gain the upper hand.”

If, they say, the APML-MQM alliance is forged, workers may react violently and even resort to dislodge the top leadership.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2016.