KARACHI, April 20: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement, which asked two of its town nazims and a member of the provincial assembly to resign on Thursday, is all set to carry out more organisational changes, it emerged on Friday.
Well-placed sources in the party told Dawn that at least three more town nazims and over a dozen union council nazims would also be shown the door. They added that the MQM’s supreme body – known as the coordination committee – would also undergo changes in the days to come.
“Some more faces will be inducted into the coordination committee and at least two existing members would be relieved of their responsibilities,” the sources said, adding that the next round of changes would take place after the MQM’s rally in Lahore against the stick-wielding proponents of sharia.
They said the organizational alterations were part of the party’s preparations for the next general elections in the country. They said the decision to make the changes -- both at the political and organisational levels -- was taken in a meeting held earlier this month in London where MQM coordination committee convenor Dr Imran Farooq held discussions with party leaders to review the performance of elected representatives and party office-bearers.
“A number of decisions were taken and the party will announce them one by one,” said a source privy to the London meetings.
He said that the decision to remove Maood Ahmed Hayat and Arif Ajakya – the nazims of Gulberg and Jamshed towns respectively – and MPA Jarar Haider was taken in the meeting of the coordination committee in London.
The MQM conducted internal inquiries of several charges levelled against Mr Hayat, who is a close relative of a senior London-based MQM leader, Mr Ajakya and Mr Haider and then asked them to resign.
The source said it was also decided to remove at least five of the 14 town nazims belonging to the Haq Parast group for failing to discharge their duties effectively. However, in the first phase two town nazims were removed after obtaining the approval of MQM chief Altaf Hussain.
He said that in the second phase the New Karachi and North Nazimabad town nazims would meet the same fate while at least one dozen UC nazims would also be removed from their posts.
Earlier, on February 27 Landhi Town Nazim Muhammad Ismail Qureshi belonging to the Haq Parast group resigned from his post citing “health reasons and pressing personal engagements”.
The sources said that the party took internal disciplinary action against MNA Abid Ali Umang and suspended him for 15 days but they ruled out his resignation from the national assembly seat.
Jarar Haider was elected as MPA from PS 123 Karachi in 2002. Arif Ajakya was elected as Jamshed town nazim after the then nazim, Colonel (retd) Tahir Mashhadi, resigned to contest the Senate elections last year. Maood Hayat was elected Gulberg Town Nazim in the 2005 local body elections.
OFF TO LONDON: Meanwhile, Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan and provincial minister Adil Siddiqui left for London to attend an important party meeting.
Sources close to the MQM said that besides reviewing overall political situation in the country, the meeting would finalise the date and venue of the rally against “stick-wielding Sharia”.