Pakistan has charged the self-exiled leader in London with treason for his inflammatory speech that incited party workers to attack media outlets here.
The paramilitary rangers and police have arrested at least 30 senior leaders of the party and started the drive to demolish MQM offices and seal sector and unit offices.
Posters of Hussain have also been taken down in different areas of Karachi including the Mukka chowk, which has served as a symbol of power for the MQM since the 80s.
The authorities have renamed the roundabout close to the MQM headquarters at Aisha Manzil as Liaquat Ali Khan chowk.
For years now, Hussain’s posters have dominated the landscapes of Karachi and other urban areas but since Wednesday, his posters have been taken down even from the Aisha Manzil area where the MQM had its headquarters ’90’ since its emergence as a major political player in Pakistan.
The rangers have also sealed the headquarters of the party.
Although the senior MQM leaders have tried to distance themselves from the leadership in London including Hussain after his hate speeches, the Paramilitary Rangers and police have continued its crackdown on the party, which claims to represent the Urdu-speaking population in Pakistan.
Mustafa Kamal, who heads the Pak Sarzameen Party which was formed by dissidents from the MQM earlier this year, told a press conference today that demolishing MQM offices would serve no purpose.
“These buildings have not made any speeches against Pakistan and I fear that if this demolishing drive continues it will only reignite sympathies for Hussain,” he warned.
MQM’s Izhar ul Hasan, Opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly, told reporters the party will not resort to protests or violence and rather use legal and constitutional means to stop the demolition of party offices and reopening of the headquarters.
The MQM emerged as a largely ethnic party in the 1980s. It has political dominance in the southern Sindh province’s urban areas – notably in Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas and Sukkur where a large number of Urdu-speaking people reside.
