Pakistan's MQM chief goes back on resignation

After few hours of announcing a resignation as the chief of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Altaf Hussain withdrew his resignation on the appeal of his party workers on Sunday. Earlier, the founder of the Pakistani political party MQM, Altaf Hussain living in UK on exile resigned as chief of the party on Sunday morning. Hussain spoke to media via telephone from The United Kingdom saying that Scotland Yard police had raided his residence some days ago and had seized some material, following which he decided to voluntarily step down as party leader on moral grounds. The MQM chief said that despite requests to the police, he had not been provided with a list of items seized. Large number of party workers and supporters gathered outside the headquarters of Karachi, 'Nine Zero' as well as other offices in the country after the news of stepping down of Altaf Hussain as MQM chief. The workers were chanting slogans to express their solidarity and demanding the chief to withdraw his decision. After receiving emotional appeals from hundreds of workers gathered outside the MQM headquarter, Altaf Hussain retracted his decision of leaving reins of the party. Hussain said that he would not seek legal counsel or a solicitor but would plead his case himself if he were to be produced in court in the Imran Farooq murder case. Dr. Imran Farooq was one of the founding members of MQM with Altaf Hussain and was also on exile in UK. Imran Farooq was murdered on his way home from work in London on September 16, 2010. The London Metropolitan police has searched two residential properties in London, conducted several raids, arrested some eight suspects, questioned several people and scanned through thousands of documents for the Dr. Imran murder case. MQM is the second largest political party of southern Pakistani province Sindh and the largest party of the economic hub Karachi. Following the decision of taking back the resignation by Altaf Hussain, celebrations erupted at Azizabad that is the MQM stronghold.