Background
Altaf Hussain was born to Nazir Hussain and Khursheed Begum on 17
September 1953 in Karachi. His parents belonged to religious families
from Agra, India. After the formation of
Pakistan in 1947, his parents migrated to Pakistan and settled in Karachi.
[7]
Hussain’s grand-father, Mufti Mohammad Ramazan, was Grand Mufti of the
town of Agra, UP, India and his maternal grand-father Haji Hafiz Raheem
Bhux was a reputed religious scholar in India.
[8]
Education
Altaf Hussain got his early education from Govt Comprehensive School,
Azizabad No. 8 Karachi. He then completed his matriculation in 1969
from Government Boys Secondary School. He attended National College
Karachi during First Year of his Intermediate Education
(Pre-Medical/Science) but switched to City College Karachi during Second
Year of Intermediate from where he completed Intermediate.After that he
went on to complete his Bachelors of Science from
Islamia Science College (Karachi) in 1974
[9] apart from completing his
Bachelor of Pharmacy by 1979 from the
University of Karachi. After completion of his Bachelor of Pharmacy he later enrolled for his Master’s degree.
[9]
Early career
Hussain began his career as a trainee at Karachi’s Seventh Day Advent
Hospital. At the same time, he also worked for a multi-national
pharmaceutical company.
[10]
Between 1970 and 1971, Hussain joined the National Service Cadet
Scheme. Soon afterwards, he also joined the Baloch Regiment of Pakistan
Army.
[10]
Political involvement
Altaf Hussain was politically active from a very young age. While attending Karachi University, on
11 June 1978, Hussain founded the “All Pakistan Mohajir Student Organization”
APMSO. This day is celebrated as
APMSO foundation day. The
APMSO
was formed as a student rights group campaigning for the rights of
Muhajir students at Karachi University. It later gave birth to the
Muhajir Qaumi Movement (
MQM) on 18 March 1984, which afterward transformed into Muttahida Qaumi Movement on 26 June 1997.
[11] Before creating the
APMSO, Hussain served as General Secretary and later as President of the National Student’s Action Committee at Karachi University.
[11]
The
Pakistani government launched
Operation Clean-up in 1992 and sent the
military
into Karachi to crack down on the MQM. Hussain escaped Karachi one
month before the operation began because of an attack on his life on 21
December 1991.
[12] Hussain fled to London and applied for political asylum.
[13]
Assassination attempt
Altaf Hussain returned to Pakistan on 21 December 1991 after a short visit to London. He left
Karachi International Airport
for his hometown, Azizabad. He was intercepted by armed terrorists near
Ayesha Manzil,F.B Area Karachi. The terrorists attacked his car with a
hand grenade but the grenade exploded in the terrorist's hand and he
died on the spot. The other terrorist was killed by counterattack from
the police.
[7]
Arrests and imprisonments
First arrest
During his political struggle, Altaf Hussain was arrested and
imprisoned thrice. He was first arrested on 14 August 1979 when he was
attending a peaceful demonstration at
Mazar-e-Quaid,
Karachi for the return of Pakistanis stranded in
Bangladesh. On 2 October 1979, he was sentenced to 9 months imprisonment and flogging five times. According to
MQM
sources, he was offered several deals by the then government officials
but he refused any deal and became free only after fully completing his
sentence on 28 April 1980.
[14]
Second arrest
Altaf Hussain was arrested the second time when he was returning after his historic address at
Pakka Qila,
Hyderabad on 31 October 1986 and was implicated in several criminal cases. His arrest enraged the people of
Sindh, especially
Karachi
and they launched public movements for his freedom. Once again, the
government offered him conditional freedom several times but he plainly
refused his freedom without the freedom of his companions. Finally, due
to great public pressure, Altaf Hussain and his companions were released
from
Central Prison Karachi on 24 February 1987 and all the charges placed on him were unconditionally lifted.
[14]
Third arrest
During 1987, the government began widespread arrests of
Mutahidda Qaumi Movement workers all over
Sindh.
As a result, Altaf Hussain submitted himself to the law enforcement
agencies on 30 August 1987 on the condition that the further arrests of
his party's workers will be stopped immediately. During his
imprisonment,
MQM
achieved great results in the Local Bodies election of 1987. Once
again, government faced widespread movements by the people for the
freedom of Altaf Hussain. On 7 January 1988, Altaf Hussain was released
from jail.
[14]
Killing of brother and nephew
During October 1993 to November 1996, a large number of
MQM's
workers and sympathizers were killed without judicial intervention.
Among them, Altaf Hussain's 66 years old elder brother Nasir Hussain and
28 years old nephew Arif Hussain were also killed. According to MQM
sources, both of them were arrested by the law enforcement agents on 5
December 1995 and were kept in torture cell where they were brutually
tortured for 4 days. They were then killed on 9 of December 1995 and
their corpses were discovered from
Gadap Town,
Karachi.
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