‘Should I step down?’ MQM chief posts poll on website

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain has asked his followers to vote on the party’s website on whether he should step down as the party leader or not.

On the party’s official website, www.mqm.org, Altaf posed this question to the ‘Haq Parast awam’: “To save the party and the people, should I step down from the movement?”

Along with the question, the options of Yes (haan), Never (har giz nahin), and Don’t Know (maloom nahin) have been given.

Altaf claimed that after his address at the party’s convention in the US, the army and the government decided that channels would not air his speeches.

“They have also threatened the MQM and if Altaf Hussain resigns from party leadership, then they would stop the operation against the Mohajirs,” he said.

Read: ‘Altaf defaming Pakistan and its institutions’

The MQM chief and his party have been of late under scrutiny both within and outside Pakistan. While the money laundering cases against Altaf are being pursued by Scotland Yard, authorities in the country are cooperating with the British police in the murder of former MQM stalwart Imran Farooq.

Meanwhile, the MQM has blamed Sindh Rangers for discriminate action against the party; several of its workers and leaders have also been detained under clauses of hate speech and terrorism, among others.



On Sunday, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar had announced that the government would file a legal reference against MQM’s top leadership in London.