MQM chief Altaf Hussain is known to make emotional appeals to his followers in Pakistan over the telephone. But this time, perhaps reflecting the pressure the party is facing from the security establishment in Pakistan, combined with the Muttahida’s legal issues in the UK, Mr Hussain gave the ultimate call: the party was to be disbanded.

On Wednesday night he ordered the party’s cadres to close all MQM offices “to protest [the] Rangers’ atrocities”. Yet expectedly, the decision was short-lived. The following morning Mr Hussain told the party faithful to reopen offices after supporters promised they would “face all consequences”.

Know more: Altaf takes back directive, MQM offices reopen: reports

The MQM supremo has quit the party leadership several times in the past over various issues, mostly to express displeasure with his subordinates. Yet these dramatic decisions would be reversed within hours after party loyalists — some in tears — would plead with him not to abandon the Muttahida ship.

Such melodramatic actions have been dubbed comical by the party’s opponents, yet they show the influence Altaf Hussain exercises over his workers. However, while the crises the MQM has been facing are very real, and while the Rangers have targeted the party excessively, the senior leadership seems to be missing in action.

Signs that the Muttahida is in disarray internally have manifested themselves in the erratic policies the party has pursued ever since the security establishment turned up the heat over the past few months.

There seems to be no plan on display to democratically struggle for the party’s rights. Yet if this state of affairs continues, managing the MQM’s campaign for the Sindh local government polls — scheduled for September — will be a very difficult task.

If the party does not organise itself, fielding candidates and reaching out to voters will be affected.

Clearly, the MQM has a vote bank in urban Sindh — despite the state’s intimidatory tactics the party secured a decisive victory in Karachi’s NA-246 by-election in April. But securing this vote bank in the LG polls will be challenging if the party fails to get its act together.

To counter its not entirely unearned reputation for strong-arm tactics and to shore up its political credentials the Muttahida must focus on the LG elections.

This will require solid canvassing and campaigning amongst the people to show the electorate that the party has a plan for effective local government in Sindh. The campaign, and the party, will hardly benefit from melodramatic announcements and bizarre policies.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2015

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