KARACHI - MQM chief Altaf Hussain has restructured his party’s central decision-making Rabita Committee. He announced the names of 23 members of the new central coordination committee and 10 members of Karachi Tanzimi Committee on Sunday evening.
The reorganisation of these vital organs of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) comes after reports that a strong group within the party had been challenging the main leadership and the move was part of Altaf’s efforts to flush out these ‘troublemakers’.
In his telephonic address to the meeting of general workers held here at Jinnah Ground in Azizabad area, Altaf said, “I will not allow anyone to run an unjustified parallel system within the party in my presence.” He said MQM follows a policy of ‘no tolerance’ when it comes to organisational discipline. “There is no room for violators of party discipline.”
Under the new arrangement, Dr Nusrat, Engineer Nasir Jamal and Khalid Maqbool are the new deputy conveners of MQM’s Rabita Committee for Pakistan while Nadim Nusrat has been appointed as the party’s deputy convener for London.
The other members of the committee for Karachi are: Syed Haider Abbas Rizvi, Dr Sagheer Ahmed, Amir Khan, Yousuf Shahwani, Kanwar Naveed Jamil, Wasay Jalil, Nasreen Jalil, Mumtaz Anwar, Adil Khan, Khalid Sultan, Aslam Afridi, Mian Attiq, Nisar Panwhar and Tariq Javed. Rabita Committee’s members for London are: Mustafa Azizabadi, Muhammad Ashfaq, Tariq Mir, Muhammad Anwar and Qasim Ali Raza.
Raza Haroon, Salim Shahzad and Asif Siddiqui have not been included in the new Rabita Committee; however, they will continue to work as party workers in their respective areas. Anis Ahmed Khan advocate was also expelled from MQM Rabita Committee London on charges of violating MQM’s code of conduct. He has also been removed from all other party offices and party workers have been advised to cut off all contacts with him.
Nadeem Ahsan has replaced Hammad Siddiqui as in-charge of MQM’s Karachi Tanzeemi (organising) Committee (KTC). Irshad Kamali will serve as Joint In-charge of KTC, which had also been dissolved a few days back. Ayaz Hasan, Hafiz Muhammad Sohail, Abbas Jafri, Kamal Malik, Arshad Sabil, Muhamamd Zakir, Aleem-ur-Rehman and Farhan Sabbir have been named as KTC members.
Dr Farooq Sattar will be the in-charge of the party’s international and diplomatic affairs committee. Speaking to party activists on Saturday, Altaf had said that the complete reorganisation of the Rabita Committee and other departments of the MQM would require fifteen days to a month but names of some vital members will be announced on Sunday in the General Workers’ Meeting.
In his Sunday’s address, Altaf Hussain said that he cannot announce the other committees of the party ‘today’ and those would be announced later. He directed the party workers not indulge in any criminal activity. He said the membership of workers found guilty of any objectionable activity would be cancelled. “Anti-social elements have no place in MQM”, he said. Noting that a number of incidents caused delay in party’s organisational restructuring, he expressed the hope that MQM would rapidly flourish after this reorganisation.
MQM’s interim coordination committee also suspended the membership of former MNA Shamim Siddiqui and Muhammad Ehsan aka Chunno, a party worker in London, on immediate basis. It said the cleansing process was underway as per the instructions of the party chief. It said investigation of allegations against these persons was underway and a final decision would be announced later. It also said that MQM was not responsible for any of the activities of both these persons.
Following this extraordinary meeting of MQM, the interim coordination committee ordered sealing all the surrounding areas of party headquarter Nine-Zero. As part of their security plan, all the roads leading to the Jinnah Ground were also closed for the traffic and vehicles including motor bikes were directed to park in the Sangam Ground. Workers were not allowed to carry mobile phones to the meeting venue and media was barred from coverage.
Sources privy to the developments said that MQM would now adopt its old organisational structure and now MPAs and MNAs would be answerable to the units and sectors concerned ahead. Sources added that the new KTC will reorganise the units and sectors across the city on merit and now senior workers would replace the current junior party leaders.

Earlier on Saturday, the MQM information department has said that the party has yet to decide whether they will be part of the government or would side with the opposition. In a press statement, it said that all options were open and it would reach a decision after consulting party workers and activists. Before that, Pakistan Peoples Party’s Qaim Ali Shah had said that his party would continue its ‘reconciliation’ policy and try to woo all parties to join their government in Sindh. He dispelled the impression that PPP has assured MQM of repealing the incumbent local government system.