Some senior leaders of the MQM are in touch with Mustafa Kamal and Anis Qaimkhani and could join their movement within the coming days, sources close to Kamal and his aides told Business Recorder on Saturday. It is a movement at this stage, to attract disgruntled MQM leadership and workers.
The Kamal-Qaimkhani duo will decide whether to form another party or simply take over the MQM depending on the numbers who opt to join the movement, informed sources further said on condition of anonymity. They pointed out that Kamal and his supporters are planning to hold a convention in the next couple of days to get suggestions for a formal name for the party and get it registered with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) accordingly.
In the convention, according to the sources, an open invitation would be extended to all party workers, traders, civil society members and people of Karachi to get their input for a future strategy. "Some influential traders and civil society members are already in touch with the Kamal-led faction and have assured their presence in the convention, besides extending their technical and moral support for the nascent political force," he said.
Sources added the convention is not meant to show their strength but to organise a consultative gathering that would formulate a future strategy and is expected to be attended by representatives of trade unions, civil society and some other influentials in the cosmopolitan city.
The MQM leadership/loyalists know that the power of the party to disrupt all activity in Karachi at an hour's notice has been compromised but, at the same time, they also know that the MQM leader may be down due to cases in the UK and ill health having taken its toll yet he is certainly not out of the game yet.
"There is a wait-and-see policy within the MQM ranks....if the perception is that the MQM chief will retain his hold on the party then those who decide to quit would become a mere trickle in days to come. However if the perception is that the MQM chief has lost his hold on the port city then the defectors would opt out in waves," a former Altaf Hussain loyalist said on condition of anonymity.
He further said that Kamal and his supporters have already announced their decision not to participate in the by-polls on seats vacated by members of the provincial assembly as their sole focus is on strengthening the party structure for upcoming general elections.
The leadership of other political leaders in the country maintain that the objective of the new faction is to offer an alternate platform to MQM's vote bank in Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur - a perception based on the possible loss of support given the very serious charges levelled against the MQM chief with respect to complicity with RAW.
Naveed Chaudhry, a senior member of the PPP, said the political leaders who have already left the MQM to join Kamal-led faction have done so to avoid persecution given the ongoing crackdown by the establishment against the MQM for alleged involvement in extortion and targeted killings. He said the move could also be designed to formulate an already established platform for Urdu-speaking community so that they need not join other political parties like the PPP, PTI and JI.
"The basic purpose of the new party could also be to preserve the ideology of the MQM and bring all like-minded people under a new platform," he said. Dr Arif Alvi, a member of the PTI, said that voters of his party would remain intact as they have been following the ideology of the party chairman Imran Khan. "Our voter in Karachi is fed up with archaic policies of the MQM and they would never join them again come what may," he said.
He, however, welcomed the Kamal-led faction but demanded a fair probe into allegations levelled by Anis Qaimkhani and Mustafa Kamal against the MQM's top leadership for their alleged links with RAW, Indian intelligence agency.
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