HYDERABAD: Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM) chairman Afaq Ahmed Khan has said that he will try his level best to unite all factions of the ‘post-Altaf MQM’ even if it comes to sitting in their feet for the cause of Mohajirs.

He was speaking at a press conference at a local hotel on Monday ahead of his party’s public meeting scheduled for Jan 21 in the city.

“A solution to the problems confronting Mohajirs lies in unity of all MQM factions and the parties representing them,” he said. Regretting that he could not achieve the target of a separate province so far, he said he had now sent a delegation to Dr Farooq Sattar, Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and Mustafa Kamal because he believed in unity.

He said he had parted company with [MQM founder] Altaf Hussain because “I used to tell him to focus on Mohajir politics but he converted MQM to Muttahida”.

Mr Khan argued that when MQM could not solve its own problems, how could it address those of Punjab and other areas. He pointed out that Altaf Hussain’s Aug 22 speech led to the emergence of different factions – MQM-Pakistan, the Farooq Sattar faction and Pak Sarzameen Party. “If these factions didn’t unite, then Mohajirs should reject them all through their unity,” he said.

He described the new local government law enacted by the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) as a “great injustice to the people of Sindh”. He said all other political parties opposed the law, adding that the amended law would benefit PPP alone.

Like other nations having their own province, Mohajirs also deserved their own province considering the fact that nobody was ready to listen to their grievances, he said. When the Sindh chief minister termed Mohajirs a ‘minority’, then a separate province appeared to be the only option for them, he argued.

He said that MQM (previously better known as Haqiqi) would hold a public meeting on Jan 21 in Hyderabad to raise its voice against the discrimination being meted out to Mohajirs. “Our youths don’t get admission to educational institutions due to quota system despite having the required marks,” he said.

Afaq Khan said that Hyderabad’s infrastructure development was before everyone; roads in the city were broken. People die in transformer fall and fire incidents and power consumers have to

pay for the replacement of PMTs. He noted that raising slogans and making demands were not making any difference. “Nothing will happen unless we show our power,” he said.

He added that when all other communities were getting their rights, why Mohajirs were being denied their rights. “My party doesn’t consider federal government and PPP to be messiah of Mohajirs,” he remarked, and

said that he would quit politics if Mohajirs did not agree to his narrative in a referendum, [when held].

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2022