MQM-London’s set-up in Pakistan not impressive

ISLAMABAD: The Altaf Hussain-led London chapter is at last successful in putting in place a central organizational structure in Pakistan in a bid to grab control of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) from Dr Farooq Sattar and his several comrades.

The edifice it has constructed is hardly impressive because no leading light of the MQM figures in the new 12-member Coordination Committee, created by the London faction.

It will be virtually run from London through the remote control as the MQM had been spearheaded by Altaf Hussain since 1992. After the defection of the entire party leadership, he was left high and dry and had none to represent and speak for him in Pakistan. He was desperate to have a setup in Pakistan where his powerbase is.

It will be a tall order for the new committee to retrieve the entire party from Farooq Sattar and his pals. It will be faced with heavy odds as nothing is favourable for it in Pakistan mainly because of Altaf Hussain’s incendiary remarks and actions.

Farooq Sattar and his companions will be confronted with an uphill task to maintain their grip on the MQM and keep it as a vibrant political force in Karachi that the MQM had been since decades. The challenges it faces have increased.

After his August 22 anti-Pakistan ranting, there was hardly anyone in the MQM Pakistan, who was standing by Altaf Hussain. Rather, everyone in this party was denouncing him severely. Only a small London-based group was defending him like before.

The creation of the new paraphernalia doesn’t mean that the embargo Altaf Hussain is facing will be alleviated in any way. However, now he has a band that will also fight the cases in different courts of law against him and his supporters.

It will be impossible for this setup to give a call for shutdown of Karachi and Hyderabad, a practice that Altaf Hussain kept following in the past in the good old days, and get it implemented. The MQM used to have a powerful system to make such protests successful instantly, which is no more active because of the Rangers-led targeted operation in Karachi. Besides, the factor of the MQM Pakistan, which will certainly oppose such agitation, will also work against attempts to spawn chaos and anarchy.

Whenever this coordination committee will try to contest any elections on the MQM platform, it will be knocked out because it has no legal value and worth in the record of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The MQM Pakistan is registered with it with Farooq Sattar, and not Altaf Hussain or any member of the new coordination committee, being its leader.

However, this faction can stand in any electoral fight by using some other nomenclature and that too informally. Whenever it approaches the ECP for registration giving even a small hint of Altaf Hussain being its leader or patron, it will receive the negative reply.

Several years back, Altaf Hussain’s nominees had contested the elections under the banner of “Haq Parast” and won. After being deprived of the MQM umbrella, they can repeat it in future as well.

Because of the physical absence of Altaf Hussain from Pakistan, the new coordination committee will remain rudderless, and will have to be content with his distant guidance, help and assistance.

Because of the desertion of all the prominent stalwarts and federal and provincial legislators, Altaf Hussain was unable to find even a single frontline MQM leader in Pakistan for induction in his just-formed coordination committee.

Among the old political faces, attached with the MQM since long, who have been taken in the 12-member committee announced from London, only Kanwar Khalid Younus, who suffered a lot of torture at the hands of the law enforcement agencies in the past, had at times played an important role in the MQM but that too was never as influential as several others like Farooq Sattar, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Raza Haroon, Mustafa Kamal etc. Obviously, the inclusion of Akram Rajput and Ashraf Noor, who had been in the background for quite sometime, showed that they still stood with the MQM founder.

Five other members of the committee including Prof Dr Hassan Zafar Arif, Advocates Ishaq and Idrees Alvi, Momin Khan Momin and Amjadullah are newcomers in Altaf Hussain’s squad. Amjadullah previously associated with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) joined the MQM a day before the by-election to National Assembly seat NA-245 Karachi, shocking his earlier party.

So of nine members of the coordination committee, who are living in Pakistan, two are lawyers, one former professor, an ex-student leader, a turncoat and four old hands. Its three members, who are overseas, will actually run this MQM from London for being with Altaf Hussain’s trusted confidants there.

Live reporting of the inaugural presser of Prof Arif, flanked by some other committee members, through a mobile phone to London reminisced the old days when Altaf Hussain used to closely monitor even the press talks of his lieutenants in Pakistan and always intervened to guide them as what to say and with what ferocity.