MQM Rabita Committee gets new leadership

Karachi
Amir Khan, Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and Dr Nusrat Shaukat will jointly head the Rabita Committee of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in Pakistan, while Mustafa Azizabadi will be in charge of the party’s coordination committee in London.
The decision was taken in a meeting held simultaneously in Karachi and London on Monday and was endorsed by party chief Altaf Hussain. Kanwar Naveed Jameel and Abdul Haseeb have also been inducted into the Rabita Committee.
Qamar Mansoor will no longer be the acting in-charge of the coordination committee and will continue as a member.
Sources said Mansoor was removed over complaints of party leaders and workers, who claimed he misbehaved with his seniors and even manhandled one of them.
The dismissed party officials had been appointed in December last year, when Hussain had suspended the entire Rabita Committee over their “callous reaction” to the murder of party leader Bao Mohammed Anwar in Sialkot.
Sources said Mansoor’s attitude towards party members had prompted Hussain to disband the acting committee.
They said Amir Khan being made a joint in-charge was expected, adding that he might be entrusted with more responsibilities in the future.
Khan was considered a diehard MQM activist until he left the party in 1990 to form the Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi with another party worker, Afaq Ahmed.
However, after receiving a written apology from Khan, Hussain and the heirs of the party workers killed in clashes between the two parties pardoned him. Thus, the MQM chief ratified his reinstatement as a party worker in 2011.
Since then he had been looking after the affairs of party headquarters Nine-Zero. However, sources said, other MQM members have reservations about him and even the party chief has been monitoring his activities because of his once close ties with Afaq Ahmed.