Out of money: MQM fires 39 KKF staffers

• Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation ‘resized’, services reduced, skeleton staff to oversee remaining welfare activities

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has fired 39 staffers of the party’s charity wing, Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation (KKF), for what the laid-off workers claimed was ‘financial crunch’ faced by the party.

A Pakistan Today investigation showed that the MQM had already limited the welfare operations of the KKF because of the financial crisis it was facing. MQM planned to ‘resize’ KKF and limit its operation to those which can be run on skeleton staff. In the first phase, the KKF has fired 39 staffers while further layoffs may be coming in the next few months.

The party, which has been under the microscope for the last couple of years, especially because of the Rangers-led Karachi operation, has faced many problems in recent months including raids on its offices and arrests of its workers besides defection from its ranks of mid-level leadership.

A page on MQM’s website says: “The MQM is the only organisation which has proved that even without being in power it has nevertheless managed to achieve and set considerable examples of service to humanity.”

Analysts, however, say that the recent layoffs show that the party is not immune to the financial crunch resulting from a check on its activities.

Analysts believe that there are two reasons behind the MQM’s financial crisis – people have stopped funding the organisation because of the bad press resulting from allegations of the party aligning with anti-Pakistan elements, and the fact that the Rangers have clamped down on the party’s revenue generating activities.

KKF RUNNING ON FUMES:

One of the main features of the KKF is its ambulance service. The KKF’s network of ambulances operates in Karachi, Hyderabad and some other parts of the country. Beside the ambulance service, the KKF has a fleet of coffin carrier buses.

However, the KKF offers limited services compared to Edhi and Chippa welfare organisations. The KKF’s emergency number is 1090. This scribe made five calls from different cell numbers and sought service to rescue those injured in road accidents at five places, but the operator asked to avail welfare services of another organisation because of shortage of ambulances at the KKF.

KKF staffers when interviewed personally, they disclosed that they are facing delays in release of their salaries. Asif, a KKF ambulance point in-charge at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), said that he had to start his own small business following delays in monthly salaries for the last one year.

Another KKF staffer, who was terminated from service because of the financial crunch, claimed that he made a hue and cry over delayed salaries, but instead of ensuring on time payment of salaries, he was terminated from service along with more than 30 others.

KKF’S WELFARE ACTIVITIES:

As per the KKF official website, MQM Chief Altaf Hussain and his colleagues had served the destitute and the needy long before the MQM came into existence. All Pakistan Mohajir Students Organisation (APMSO) was formed on June 11, 1978 which later gave birth to the Mohajir Qaumi Movement. MQM chief Altaf Hussain and his colleagues formed Khidmat-e-Khalq Committee (KKC) in 1978 along with the formation of the APMSO. Later, the name was changed to Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation (KKF) in 1998.

Under the umbrella of KKF, MQM is running Nazeer Hussain Medical Complex Karachi and Nazeer Hussain Medical Complex Hyderabad. The KKF has two medical centres and maternity homes – one each in Khursheed Begum Memorial Medical Centre and Medical Centre and Maternity Homes Khuda Ke Basti.

KKF is running five mortuaries in Landi, Malir, Organi, New Karachi and PIB Colony. The welfare foundation has its laboratories in Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH), Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases (KIHD), Landhi Medical Complex (LMC) and Cardiac Emergency Centre Landhi (CECL). The Foundation also has two blood banks in ASH and KIHD. It has four pharmacies in ASH, KIHD, LMC and CECL.

‘OUR WELFARE ACTIVITIES ARE BEING STOPPED’:

MQM Coordination Committee member Ameen-ul Haque, when approached for comments, admitted that the KKF is facing financial crisis. He confirmed that the KKF staffers had indeed been laid off.

“MQM holds 85 percent mandate in the city and yet it has been stopped from welfare work,” Haque alleged, explaining that “If any worker possessing receipt of Fitra or Zakat is apprehended, he is declared a terrorist and handed over to Rangers for 90-day preventive detention.

When he was asked if the people had stopped funding MQM, Haque rejected the impression and maintained that MQM was deliberately stopped from raising funds to run its welfare services.