Muttahida Qaumi Mahaz

Muttahida Qaumi Mahaz (MQM, United National Front), originally known as Mohajir Quami Movement (Emigrant National Movement), a political party in Pakistan. MQM has no strong religious or political ideology. MQM represents the urban Urdu-speaking Mohajir population which emigrated from India when Pakistan and India split in 1947. MQM agitates for Mohajir rights in Pakistan, and struggles to gain more political power for Mohajirs. The MQM also seeks to improve the low social and economic status of the Mohajir population.

Philosophy

Mohajirs claim that official discrimination against them began in 1958 when Muhammad Ayub Khan seized the presidency of Pakistan in a military coup. Ayub Khan systematically eliminated Mohajirs from important positions in the civil service, bureaucracy and local government. Mohajirs accuse the subsequent administration of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of nationalizing Mohajir businesses, unfairly taxing them, and outlawing the use of Urdu by teachers and bureaucrats. MQM is strongly opposed to the domination of the rural population of the Sindh province by landed oligarchs, as well as the domination of the Sindh by Punjab, Pakistan's largest, wealthiest, and most populous province. In 2001, the MQM detonated a series of explosive devices in Karachi to protest a water shortage in the city.

MQM and their founder Altaf Hussain have been notorious in the murder and assasination of several key figures.

Current Goals

In 1992, MQM split into two factions. The majority faction, led by the founder Altaf Hussain, was renamed Muttahida Quomi Mahaz and is commonly referred to as MQM (A). The MQM (A) has become an exclusively political outfit. The smaller faction, MQM (H), retained the original name, Mohajir Qaumi Movement but added the suffix Haqiqi, which means "real". MQM (A) and MQM (H) are involved in a turf war in Karachi.