Altaf Hussain asks MQM legislators in Pak to resign

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain has asked his party lawmakers in Pakistan to resign and accused Farooq Sattar-led MQM-Pakistan of betraying him.

Hussain in an audio message posted on social media about a week ago asked the MQM's parliamentarians to resign and contest elections afresh since they had been elected "in his name" and also warned them that their constituents would ensure their resignations if they did not quit assemblies on his call, reports the Dawn.

However, the authenticity of the audio clip has not been established yet.

On Thursday, the MQM-London posted on YouTube and Daily Motion an 81-minute-long clip in which Hussain was seen speaking to his followers for about 42 minutes.

The remaining part of the clip only contained Hussain's voice.

He told his followers that there should be no confusion about those sitting in what he called "the PIB camp" - the residence of Sattar which is nowadays the temporary headquarters of the MQM-Pakistan - that they had deceived him by writing him out of the MQM's constitution.

"From now on, none of my followers will contact anyone except [MQM] London and Nadeem Nusrat," he said, adding: "Soon the coordination committee in Pakistan and London will be announced."

He said the coordination committee in Pakistan was taking decisions which "are not in the interest of the nation".

While not a single lawmaker had paid any heed to his earlier call to resign, he yet again asked the parliamentarians belonging to his party to send their resignations to the assemblies and the Senate by Friday.

He said that the voters would force their representatives in the National Assembly, the Sindh Assembly and the Senate to submit their resignations and contest election independently.

"I will accept them if they return to the assemblies," he added.