Altaf alive and kicking, offers olive branch to establishment

• MQM chief says Pakistan’s establishment should learn from past mistakes
• Says rumours about his health part of a conspiracy to spread despair and panic in MQM ranks
• Rejects allegations that he is being supported by India’s RAW

As speculation is rife in Pakistan about the health of the embattled Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Chairman Altaf Hussain, the self-exiled politician used a press interview to reject rumours about his ‘ill health’ while urging the country’s military establishment to learn from its past mistakes.

Speaking to BBC Urdu on Wednesday, MQM Chairman Hussain said that he did not want to be at daggers drawn with the establishment.

“The amount of work that I do even today would send a healthy man to a hospital within three days, but my health is perfectly fine,” Hussain said while commenting on the rumours of his illness. The MQM had addressed the issue in a statement released earlier in the day.

“Rumours circulating about the leader’s health are part of a conspiracy and a script to spread despair and panic among workers and the public,” said the MQM statement.

“[Altaf] is perfectly fine and busy with personal and party matters and is in regular contact with the Rabita (Coordination) Committee, zones, and party departments,” the statement quoted Rabita Committee convener Nadeem Nusrat as saying.

Another London-based MQM spokesperson said Hussain is “fine and fresh” and that the reports are part of a “drama”.

NOT AN ENEMY OF THE ESTABLISHMENT:

Altaf Hussain said during the interview that he did not want any confrontation with the establishment. He said that the establishment should consult with him as he knows a lot, adding that he had already offered to cooperate with the establishment and had offered them a salute, but his gesture had not been reciprocated in kind.

“You’re the soldiers of my homeland. Do not think of Altaf Hussain as an enemy. Do not think of MQM as an enemy either.”

Altaf asked the establishment to cooperate with him and to give him the reins. He said that if he were at the helm of affairs, he would make Pakistan one of the most, if not the most, developed countries in the world within 10 years.

Talking about his relations with RAW and allegations of his party having received funding from the Indian spy agency, Altaf said that he categorically rejected those allegations.

“As far as I know, ‘R’ (the Urdu alphabet) stands for ‘Rasool’ and ‘Alif’ stands for Allah,” Hussain said. “That is all the relationship I have with RAW.”

Talking about his party being in hot water in recent times, he said that every strong movement in history had to face such perils at one point or another. He said that those who were defecting would eventually be humiliated, just like in the past.

He said that the talk of ‘minus Altaf’ was not new and that former COAS Gen (r) Asif Nawaz’ statement to this effect was on the record. He vowed that he and his supporters would continue facing up to all the ordeals, as they had done in the past.

ILL HEALTH:

Rumours about the MQM chief’s ill health made the rounds on social media days after former Karachi Nazim Mustafa Kamal returned from his self-imposed exile along with Anees Qaimkhani to form a new, yet-unnamed party and invited MQM members to defect.

Following the rumours about Hussain’s health, security was beefed up at the British High Commission in Karachi, a source said.

Karachiites frantically shared chain messages inquiring and speculating about the situation in the city.

In response to Kamal’s first press conference last week, party leader Farooq Sattar also said, “The return of Mustafa Kamal and Anees Qaimkhani is part of a conspiracy but MQM stands by Altaf Hussain.”

Rabita Committee convener Nadeem Nusrat lashed out from London at the media for making “an issue out of a non-issue”.

“Media gave hours of air time to people with no mandate,” Nadeem Nusrat complained.