Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain was hospitalised again in London on Friday after falling ill.
In a post on the party’s X account, it said: “The health of MQM founder and leader Altaf Hussain has deteriorated again, after which he has been taken to a local hospital. According to details released by the MQM Central Information Department, on Friday, Altaf Hussain’s health worsened again.
“Immediate medical attention was sought, and an ambulance was called. The doctor promptly dispatched a medical emergency team. The emergency team initially examined Altaf Hussain at his residence, after which he was shifted to a local hospital for further examination and treatment.”
The MQM Coordination Committee appealed to all workers and the public to pray for his recovery.
MQM London-based senior party leader Mustafa Azizabadi also confirmed the development on a post on X.
Hussain was hospitalised in London last month due to “severe illness”, where he underwent multiple tests.
Previously known as the Mohajir Qaumi Movement, Hussain founded his party in 1984 to represent the Urdu-speaking community, which had migrated to Pakistan amid Partition.
Under Hussain’s leadership, MQM swept the 1988 election in Sindh’s urban areas, emerging as the third-largest party in the country.
The MQM under Hussain was accused of using violent tactics to attain and retain political power. On the contrary, Hussain maintained that the state and other political parties have targeted MQM and its workers ever since its formation.
Hussain currently lives in London, where he has been in self-imposed exile since 1992. He was later granted British citizenship. From London, Hussain played an active role in politics, regularly broadcasting political speeches to his followers in Karachi.
He was in the intensive care unit at a hospital in Britain, apparently after contracting Covid-19 in February 2021.
Hussain was born on September 17, 1953, in Karachi. He obtained his early education at a public school in Karachi’s Azizabad neighbourhood, a middle-class locality in Karachi where he spent his early years and his youth. He later enrolled at the University of Karachi to study Pharmacy and graduated from the programme in 1979.
His political career began during his student years in KU when he and Azeem Ahmed Tariq founded the All-Pakistan Mohajir Students Organisation (APMSO).
Formed in 1978, APMSO gained a massive following within a short period of time.
In the early 1990s, the MQM chief went into exile as the government at the time conducted an operation in Karachi.
Viewed as the man who controlled Karachi from London, Hussain came under fire in May 2013 for his televised speech across Pakistan, where he allegedly demanded the separation of Karachi from the rest of Pakistan if the public mandate of his party was not acceptable to the ‘establishment’. The party later clarified, saying it was taken out of context.
However, the final undoing of the MQM, as it was known, came after Hussain delivered an incendiary speech in August 2016 in which he not only raised slogans against Pakistan but also called the country “a cancer for the entire world”. Hours after the speech, MQM workers had attacked the ARY News office in Karachi.
Authorities launched a crackdown following the speech and the MQM’s Karachi headquarters and Hussain’s residence in Azizabad were sealed. Later, Hussain’s own party leaders in Pakistan distanced themselves from him and omitted his name from the party constitution.
In October 2019, Hussain was charged with “encouraging terrorism” by British police over his speech. He was also arrested in the case earlier in 2019 but was released on bail.
After deliberations that spanned three days, a 12-member jury had returned a majority verdict in Rex (crown) versus Altaf Hussain in February 2022, acquitting the MQM founder on two counts of ‘encouraging terrorism’.
The jury found Hussain not guilty on both counts of encouraging terrorism, contrary to section 1(2) of the UK’s Terrorism Act 2006.
