KARACHI, Sept 17 Dr Imran Farooq was among the few individuals who had laid the foundation of a small ethnic party — the Mohajir Qaumi Movement — in 1984 in Karachi. However, 26 years later, on Thursday when he was assassinated in London, where he had been living in self-imposed exile since 1999, he was not actively involved with the party, which had been transformed into the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and had become the fourth largest political force in parliament.

The slain leader was always regarded as the brain behind every 'political and strategic' move that the MQM made after the launch of the June 1992 army operation against it.

Born in Karachi in June 1960, Dr Farooq began his political career in 1978 as a founding member of the All Pakistan Mohajir Students Organisation. He was appointed secretary-general of the APMSO in 1982 when he was studying medicine in the Sindh Medical College. Two years later, he became the first secretary-general of the MQM. He completed his MBBS in 1985.

He was always a trusted confidant of MQM chief Altaf Hussain, who had tasked him to write literature for the political education of the workers and supporters of the MQM.

Dr Farooq was twice elected member of the national assembly in the general elections held in 1988 and 1990. He was the parliamentary leader of the Haq Parast Group in the assembly.

Being the MQM's parliamentary party leader in the national assembly, Dr Farooq had in 1989 announced at the floor of the House that the MQM was parting ways with the Benazir Bhutto-led Pakistan People's Party government.

Dr Farooq had gone into hiding when the army launched a crackdown against the MQM in June 1992. He was booked in a number of criminal cases, declared absconders and the government had announced a reward on his head. As Mr Hussain had already left for London while other senior leaders had also escaped from Pakistan, he was the only senior leader who was running the organisational structure of the MQM while living in Karachi after the assassination of then MQM chairman Azeem Ahmed Tariq in 1993.

He became the country's most-wanted fugitive and remained in hiding in the city for seven years. While the MQM had won most Karachi seats in the 1997 general election and formed a coalition government with the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) at the Centre and in Sindh, Dr Farooq remained underground. In 1999, he managed to slip out of the country allegedly on a forged passport and resurfaced in London where he sought political asylum.

The MQM at that time celebrated his safe arrival in London and the MQM chief paid him rich tribute and declared him the “hero of the nation”. Soon he was appointed convener of the MQM coordination committee — the top slot in the MQM organisational structure which at that time fell vacant after the party removed Senator Ishtiaq Azhar from the post — to run the show with full authority.

On two occasions, he was suspended from the top party office. However, each time he was asked to come back to join his responsibilities as the MQM convener.

In February 2004, he married a former member of the Sindh Assembly, Shumaila Nazar, in London.

In 2007, Dr Farooq silently left the MQM international secretariat and opted to live a secluded life in London with his family. Although no one was appointed convener in his place, some MQM leaders privately acknowledged that he was removed from the top office of the MQM.

He never made public the reasons behind his not taking part in active politics. He remained tight-lipped about his alleged differences with the MQM leadership.

Dr Farooq was assassinated outside his London residence by an assailant who stabbed him to death on Thursday evening. He left behind a widow, two sons, parents, a brother and seven sisters.

His father, Farooq Ahmed, had also won a national assembly seat in the 1997 general election.