Something shifted overnight deep within the MQM hierarchy in Karachi, and when Farooq Sattar was released on August 23, he dropped the equivalent of a political bombshell, the explosion of which is going to have consequences yet unseen.
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According to sources, around 50 MQM workers were detained by law enforcement agencies following yesterday’s violence.
Within hours of his speech on Monday, the Pakistani Rangers raided the MQM headquarters, took several of the party leaders into custody and subsequently put lock on its entrance gate.
One person was killed and several others injured in Pakistan when MQM activists, who were on a hunger strike for four days, went on a rampage and attacked the office of a private TV channel alleging biased coverage. Police arrested a senior leader of MQM, Farooq Sattar, as he arrived to address a news conference in front of the press club after the incident. Come the morning and there was the ritual apology, as there always is, from a sorrowful Altaf Hussain in London pleading that he was under extreme stress when he made his remarks and he was seemingly under the impression that it was back to business as usual, no matter death, injury and damage. “Being a Pakistani, I assure the Pakistani people, establishment, army, ISI, all higher authorities and leaders that I will never use such words again”, he added.
Analysts said the outcome of Akhtar’s election was a foregone conclusion as the MQM, headed by Altaf Hussain, living in self-exile in Edgware in London since 1992, holds an overwhelming majority in the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, which will elect the mayor. “MQM will be run from here (Pakistan)”.
For more than two decades, Hussain has addressed supporters through a loudspeaker linked to his London home telephone.
The MQM largely draws its support from the descendants of Urdu-speaking migrants from India who dominate Karachi and other urban centres of southern Sindh province. The Rangers deny any abuse.
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Mr Hussain was arrested in 2014 by British police on suspicion of money-laundering, which he denied.
