The once-uniformed Mohajir beginnings of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) have seen multiple splits and fractures over the years, leading to its current splinters, MQM-Pakistan, MQM-London, and MQM-Haqiqi.
But on August 22, 2016, a terrible watershed was triggered by the ominous events that transpired. Speaking the unthinkable on that day, Altaf Hussain, the all-powerful party supremo who had been controlling the Mohajir community, who spoke Urdu, for almost thirty years, shot his politics in the head.
This set off a countdown for both Altaf’s and the party’s eventual demise because they were both seen as being too powerful to fail.
In the 1990s, Altaf chose to relocate to London, and members of the Rabita Committee came up with the title MQM-Pakistan,decided to open a secretariat in London in addition to the one at Nine Zero, Azizabad, the party headquarters.
It began as a single Rabita Committee that connected Pakistan and London, but it eventually split into the MQM-Pakistan and the MQM-London.
