Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain is currently hospitalised in London due to “severe illness”, according to party officials.
Previously known as the Mohajir Qaumi Movement, Hussain founded his party in 1984 to represent the Urdu-speaking community, which had migrated to Pakistan amid Partition.
Hussain currently lives in London, where he has been in self-imposed exile since 1992. He was later granted British citizenship. From London, Hussain played an active role in politics, regularly broadcasting political speeches to his followers in Karachi.
“The founder and leader of MQM, Altaf Hussain, has been admitted to a hospital in London due to severe illness, where various tests have been conducted on him,” said senior London-based MQM leader Mustafa Azizabadi.
He appealed to people to pray for the MQM founder.
In a subsequent video message, he said Hussain’s health deteriorated last night and he was hospitalised upon a doctor’s inspection and recommendation. “Doctors have conducted various tests and are focusing their attention on his treatment.”
In a follow-up conversation with Dawn.com, Azizabadi said the MQM founder’s treatment was ongoing and “hopefully it’s not something serious”.
Meanwhile, an update from MQM Coordination Committee Deputy Convener Qasim Ali said doctors had recommended various tests, including blood tests, electrocardiogram, computed tomography scan, X-ray and ultrasound.
“Altaf Hussain has been facing prolonged stress due to the national and international situation, multiple legal cases in London, and severe financial difficulties.
“Suffering from severe mental stress, doctors have prescribed blood transfusion in addition to medications for their treatment, and blood has been transfused.”
He was in the intensive care unit at a hospital in Britain, apparently after contracting Covid-19 in February 2021.
Hussain was born on September 17, 1953, in Karachi. He obtained his early education at a public school in Karachi’s Azizabad neighbourhood, a middle-class locality in Karachi where he spent his early years and his youth. He later enrolled at the University of Karachi to study Pharmacy and graduated from the programme in 1979.
His political career began during his student years in KU when he and Azeem Ahmed Tariq founded the All-Pakistan Mohajir Students Organisation (APMSO).
Formed in 1978, APMSO gained a massive following within a short period of time.
Under Hussain’s leadership, MQM swept the 1988 election in Sindh’s urban areas, emerging as the third largest party in the country.
In the early 1990s, the MQM chief went into exile as the government at the time conducted an operation in Karachi.
The MQM under Hussain was accused of using violent tactics to attain and retain political power. On the contrary, Hussain maintained that the state and other political parties have targeted MQM and its workers ever since its formation.
Viewed as the man who controlled Karachi from London, Hussain came under fire in May 2013 for his televised speech across Pakistan, where he allegedly demanded the separation of Karachi from the rest of Pakistan if the public mandate of his party was not acceptable to the ‘establishment’. The party later clarified, saying it was taken out of context.
However, the final undoing of the MQM, as it was known, came after Hussain delivered an incendiary speech in August 2016 in which he not only raised slogans against Pakistan but also called the country “a cancer for the entire world”. Hours after the speech, MQM workers had attacked the ARY News office in Karachi.
Authorities launched a crackdown following the speech and the MQM’s Karachi headquarters and Hussain’s residence in Azizabad were sealed. Later, Hussain’s own party leaders in Pakistan distanced themselves from him and omitted his name from the party constitution.
In October 2019, Hussain was charged with “encouraging terrorism” by British police over his speech. He was also arrested in the case earlier in 2019 but was released on bail.
After deliberations that spanned three days, a 12-member jury had returned a majority verdict in Rex (crown) versus Altaf Hussain in February 2022, acquitting the MQM founder on two counts of ‘encouraging terrorism’.
The jury found Hussain not guilty on both counts of encouraging terrorism, contrary to section 1(2) of the UK’s Terrorism Act 2006.
