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To further the
programme of national development and a nation-wide campaign against feudal
domination, Mohajir Quami Movement was formally transformed into Muttahida Quami
Movement on 26 July 1997. MQM led by its founder and leader Mr
Altaf Hussain is the third largest political party of Pakistan and the second largest political party in the southern province of Sindh.
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ALTAF
HUSSAIN
FOUNDER AND LEADER OF MQM |
Altaf Hussain, founder and leader of Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), was
born on September 17, 1953 in the port city of Karachi. His father Nazir
Hussain and his mother Khurshid Begum both belonged to a religious family
of Aghra, a very prominent City in India. His Grand-father Mufti Muhammad
Ramzan was Mufti of the City of Aghra. He was a great Islamic scholar.
His mother and his maternal Grandfather, Haji Hafiz Raheem Buxsh also belonged
to a well-known religious and honorable family of Aghra.
After the creation of Pakistan
on August 14, 1947, his whole family migrated from India to Pakistan and settled
in a lower middle-class neighborhood of "Ibn-e-sena line" in Karachi. Mr. Altaf
Hussain's father died on March 13th, 1967 and mother died on December 5,
1985.
After getting his primary and secondary education from Government
schools, as the family could not afford private schooling, he joined compulsory
National Cadet Service Scheme. After being selected for training he was assigned
in 57 Balochistan Regiment as soldier # 2642671 and sent to war in former East
Pakistan. After the war was over, he willfully wanted to join the regular army,
although being cleared all the tests and interviews he was rejected from the
army because he was a “ Mohajir “ (a son of an Immigrant). He then joined
Karachi University in the faculty of Pharmacy. During his stay at the University
he felt a vacuum in student politics for the sons and daughters of Urdu-speaking
immigrants. So in 1978, he along with some of his classmates founded All
Pakistan Mohajir Student Organization (APMSO). It is said that this was the
turning point in the student politics of Pakistan. APMSO gained momentum like
wild fire in the colleges of Karachi, as if this platform was eagerly awaited
and finally this student movement transpired into MQM of Mohajir Quami Movement
by 1986.
Altaf Hussain in his mid twenties not only saw and felt the
unfairness of the admission policies in schools but also in the broader spectrum
he saw and felt the unfair feudal framework consisting of only 2% of the elites
who were busy in writing the faith of 98% of the middle and lower middle classes
of the country. In general, a son of an immigrant started a struggle of
awareness against the unfair feudal system of Pakistan. How dare a harmonic
system of elites who were systematically and methodically dislodging the wealth
of the people of Pakistan being challenged by a son of an immigrant, how dare a
son of an immigrant starts raising his head and voice of those 98% who have been
working hard but disregarded and ignored, this was the mother of all the sins of
the century, and sinner must be punished so at the day break of June 19th, 1992,
young workers of MQM started getting punished by the elite forces of the country
and by the time dust settled in 1996, twelve thousand families were either
waiting for their young sons to return back to them or they were hoping for some
justice from God.
Mr. Altaf Hussain established a political party
representing lower- and middle-class population of Pakistan. First time in the
history of the country lower middle-class gained access, through the MQM
platform, by being elected for National and Provincial assemblies of
Pakistan.
The most interesting phenomenon was that nobody from either
sides of Altaf Hussain’s families were politicians or close to politics. Now MQM
led by its founder and leader Mr. Altaf Hussain is the third largest political
party of Pakistan and the second largest political party in the Southern
Province of Sindh. Unlike the leaders of various political parties of Pakistan
and their families, neither Altaf Hussain nor any of his relatives were ever
seen contesting for any political office in Pakistan.
Altaf Hussain came
from a family of seven brothers and four sisters. His elder brother, Nasir
Hussain was a government employee and was allotted a small quarter on Jahangir
Road, where the whole family was moved from Ibin-e-sena lines. In early 1970's
Mr. Altaf Hussain and his family shifted to a small house of 120 sq yards (1,080
sq.ft.) in Azizabad, Karachi. This small house later became the party Head
Quarter of MQM and presently known as Nine Zero.
On December 5, 1995,
during Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) government, Nasir Hussain , 66, and his
son Arif Hussain, 28, were arrested from their home by police on unknown charges
and were found brutally murdered on December 9, 1995. Their tortured and
mutilated bodies were thrown in a remote area of Karachi.
Altaf Hussain
now lives in London, where party workers would like to see him insulated from
the death squads of Pakistan, But Mr. Hussain is by no means isolated from his
workers. He not only directs and controls the direction of the movement but is
also in a very close contact with his people - the people of Pakistan. |
Visitors since nov 2009
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