Leaders from three factions of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) gathered on Thursday in Karachi’s Bahadurabad area to announce a merger, with Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Mustafa Kamal, and Farooq Sattar taking turns to make speeches.

Soon after announcing the ‘reunification’ – as it is being called — the party leaders said that they would do everything to block local bodies polls in Karachi and Hyderabad scheduled for coming Sunday, January 15.

Mustafa Kmal who heads the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) and Farooq Sattar who leads the PIB faction of MQMP arrived at the Bahadurabad headquarters of Maqbool-led MQMP this afternoon.

However, the Altaf Hussain-led MQM faction which is known as MQM-London is not part of the unification plan. Similarly, Afaq Ahmed, who leads MQM-Haqeeqi has also distanced himself from the new alignment.

The move is being dubbed the ‘reunification’ of MQM.

Mustafa Kamal parted ways with MQM six months before Altaf Hussain’s August 2016 speech against state institutions. Farooq Sattar and other leaders shunned Altaf Hussain following the fiery speech which was televised on private-run TV channels and rebranded the party as MQM Pakistan or MQMP for short. MQMP underwent further disintegration when Sattar had a falling out with Khalid Maqbool and Aamir Khan in 2018.

Originally, Afaq Ahmed and Aamir Khan were comrades of Altaf until 1992 when they formed Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqeeqi.

Altaf Hussain-led faction was also called the Mohajir Qaumi Movement back then, but in 1998 in an attempt to broaden the canvas and attain nationalist characteristics, Altaf renamed it Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

Aamir Khan went back to Muttahida Qaumi Movement following his release from prison in 1997.

It took Kamal, Khalid Maqbool and Sattar six years to come together. The efforts for ‘reunification’ were spearheaded by Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori, who visited leaders of all factions in recent months. He also hosted a key meeting at the Governor House in Karachi.

Speaking at the Bahadurabad headquarters of his faction, Khalid Maqbool said that the situation in Karachi is getting worse by the day. This city is called Mini Pakistan, but everyone knows what happened to the urban areas in the last 5 years, he said.

Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said that Karachi is the revenue engine of Pakistan, there is a need to unite and to thwart the conspiracies against Karachi, so he welcomes Mustafa Kamal, Anees Qaimkhani and Farooq Sattar.

Mustafa Kamal said that today is important for the history of Karachi.

Kamal said that he had no personal grudge against the MQM founder and left the party because in the party because death was the smallest punishment for rebellion in this city.

Kamal said that he and his colleagues were migrating from PSP to Muttahida. If Asif Zardari wants to see Bilawal Bhutto as the prime minister then he will take along Karachi. He should not spoil the game under the influence of a few people, he said.

The three leaders took questions following the merger announcement.

Khalid Maqbool said that MQMP would not allow local bodies elections to go ahead as scheduled on January 15. The elections should not be held without revising the delimitations, he said.

Maqbool also threatened to leave the federal government where MQMP is an important ally.