MQM-Pakistan disowns four London-based leaders

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in Pakistan has removed the London-based coterie of MQM founder Altaf Hussain from the top decision-making forum of the party after coordination committee convener Nadeem Nusrat said that the supremo was still the party's uncontested chief.

Nusrat, who was until recently recognised as the convener of the MQM coordination committee at a programme held to celebrate the 63rd birthday of Hussain, said that no one could separate the Mohajir community from Hussain as he was the one who gave them a separate identity.

"Altaf Hussain himself is the MQM," Dawn quoted Nusrat as saying.

The MQM leader's speech has been blocked in Pakistan since Hussain's August 22 tirade which put the Dr Farooq Sattar-led MQM-Pakistan in an awkward position.

 

The party wrote Hussain out of the party constitution, but retained Nusrat as the party convener.

The MQM-Pakistan, in a statement, said that it had unanimously dissociated itself "from London" after the Aug 22 incident.

After the statement was issued, the coordination committee went into an emergency session at the temporary headquarters in Karachi's PIB Colony.

Presided over by Sattar, all members of the coordination committee in Pakistan then decided to remove four London-based members from the committee.

According to another statement, London-based MQM convener Nadeem Nusrat and members Wasay Jalil, Mustafa Azizabadi and Qasim Ali Raza have been expelled from the party.