Altaf Hussain tells MQM workers ‘they are free to join any party’

LONDON: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain has said that he has “relieved all party workers of their oath of allegiance to him.”

 Addressing a meeting of MQM workers from around the world, including Pakistan, Altaf Hussain said: “For the past 47 years, I have been struggling for the rights of Pakistan’s deprived and oppressed people, especially the Mohajir community. I have worked day and night without a single day off. In this struggle, we have endured the martyrdom of thousands of colleagues, enforced disappearances, displacement, destruction of homes, forced occupation of properties, and countless other sacrifices. My own family has not been spared either,” Hussain said.

He recalled that his 77-year-old elder brother, Nasir Hussain, and his young nephew, Arif Hussain, were abducted from their home in December 1995, tortured for three days, and shot dead on the outskirts of Karachi.

“My 28-year-old nephew, Arif Hussain, was hacked to death with an axe. My 70-year-old brother-in-law, Aslam Ibrahmani, was arrested from Karachi, brutally tortured for six months in Adiala jail, and dumped outside in a near-dead state, before he succumbed to his injuries. None of my siblings escaped the ordeal of repeated raids on their homes, forcing them into exile,” he said.

“Despite the martyrdom of thousands of comrades, the anguish of thousands of disappeared colleagues, and the imprisonment of many — including those still in jail — I have concluded that I have failed not only to change Pakistan’s rotten and outdated system, but also to secure the rights of my Mohajir nation. Therefore, from August 10, 2025, I relieve all comrades, including the former coordination committee, convener, deputy convener, and all workers, from the oath of loyalty they took to the movement and to me. They are now free to join any political party they wish,” said Altaf Hussan, who remained hospitaled in London following a serious illness in July.

Altaf Hussain said that he would continue his struggle for rights of through social media for as long as he was alive, saying, “Success or failure is in the hands of Allah.”

Born in Karachi in 1953, Altaaf Hussain began his political career as a student leader representing the Urdu-speaking community in the late 1970s. He founded MQM in the 1980s, which rapidly grew into a major political force in Sindh’s urban areas, particularly Karachi.

Since relocating to the United Kingdom in the early 1990s and gaining British citizenship, the Karachi native remained politically engaged primarily through telecommunication channels and broadcasts directed at his followers in Pakistan.