No factions in MQM: Altaf
KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s chief Altaf Hussain said on Tuesday that there was no grouping in his party.
“The MQM will either exist or vanish but it will have no groups. All those who try to form groups would face the wrath of Allah,” he said while speaking from London by phone to a large number of party supporters gathered at the Jinnah Ground to commemorate a ‘day of martyrs’.
For the umpteenth time, Mr Hussain threatened to quit the position of the party chief and asked his followers to select someone else if they did not want to see him as their leader.
Emotionally charged workers shouted that they would not accept Mr Hussain’s resignation and never choose anyone as his replacement.
He said that he had communicated certain points to Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad and the MQM coordination committee and if these were not followed he would resign from the party. He asked the coordination committee to reach out to the ordinary workers to hear their grievances.
He expressed gratitude to former president Asif Zardari, Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, Governor Ibad, Bahria Town chief Malik Riaz and all members of the Sindh Assembly for passing bills to set up new universities in Karachi, Hyderabad and Nawabshah.
He urged the ‘Sindhis and Mohajirs’ to work for the betterment of Sindh like brothers. He said that 379 MQM workers had been killed during the past two years. “The news of the killing of MQM workers due to torture after being arrested or kidnapped is not highlighted in the media.”
Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2014