Altaf Hussain

Following the partition of India in 1947, a wide-scale migration of Muslims ensued, mostly from the various states in the Dominion of India to the newly established Dominion of Pakistan.

Hussain's parents were initially reluctant to leave everything behind in Agra to resettle in Pakistan but were later forced by Hussain's elder brother to reconsider.

Upon emigrating to Pakistan, the family settled in Karachi.

They were provided with government housing in Abyssinia Lines reserved for Muhajirs (people and families migrating from the Dominion of India).

Hussain's elder brother Nasir Hussain was later employed by the government and given a small dwelling on Jehangir Road.

The family subsequently left their government allotted residence and moved in with Nasir.

Altaf Hussain (born 17 September 1953 in Karachi) is a British Pakistani politician who is known as the founder of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

He holds United Kingdom citizenship and has been living in exile in the UK since the start of Operation Clean-up.

Altaf Hussain was born on 17 September 1953 to Nazir Hussain and Khurseed Begum in Karachi.

Before the independence of Pakistan, Hussain's parents resided at their ancestral home in Nai ki Mandi, Agra, U.P., British India.

His father Nazir Hussain was an officer with the Indian Railways in Agra.

His paternal grandfather Maulana Ramzan Hussain was the Grand Mufti of Agra.

His maternal grandfather Pir Haji Hafiz Rahim Bakhsh Qadri was also religious scholar.

Hussain's siblings include four sisters and six brothers.

He later enrolled in the Government Boys Secondary School to complete his matriculation in 1969.

For the first year of his intermediate education in pre-medical sciences, he attended the National College Karachi.

He later moved to City College Karachi for his second year.

The family later moved again in the 1970s to a small house in Azizabad, which later became the headquarters of Hussain's political party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM; formerly the Muhajir Qaumi Movement).

Hussain received his early education from the Government Comprehensive School in Azizabad.

In 1970, General Yahya Khan introduced the National Service Cadet Scheme (NSCS), making it compulsory for higher secondary scholars to enlist with the army.

According to the MQM, Altaf Hussain enlisted with the Pakistan Army through the NSCS and was assigned to the 57th Baloch Regiment as soldier number 2642671.

Upon completion of his training his regiment was assigned from Hyderabad to Karachi, from where it was sent to East Pakistan via ships.

After the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War came to an end in 1971, Hussain returned to West Pakistan to wilfully join with the regular army.

In the MQM's version of events, the selection officer rejected him because his parents were Muhajirs from India, even when he insisted he was born in Pakistan.

This is quoted as one of the many instances that formulated Hussain's future political aspirations.

In 1974, Hussain graduated from the Islamia Science College with a Bachelor of Science.

In 1979, he graduated from the University of Karachi with a Bachelor of Pharmacy.

After graduating, Hussain began his career as a trainee at the Seventh-day Adventist Hospital in Karachi while simultaneously working for a multinational pharmaceutical company.

The political struggle of the All Pakistan Muhajir Students Organisation (APMSO) shifted to include the issue of stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh, and on 14 August 1979, Hussain participated in a demonstration at the Mazar-e-Quaid for the safe return of stranded Pakistanis, also called Biharis.

Following the demonstration, he was arrested and sentenced on 2 October 1979 to nine months imprisonment and flogging with five strokes.

Hussain was later released on 28 April 1980 after he had served his sentence.

The urban centres of Karachi and Hyderabad had increasingly become ethnically diverse and riots along ethnic lines were commonplace.

In May 1985, a Pakhtun minivan driver struck and killed a Muhajir schoolgirl, inciting the first Afghan-Muhajir ethnic riot.

Later, following an unsuccessful raid on an Afghan heroin processing and distribution centre in Sohrab Goth by security forces, the Afghans attacked Muhajir residents of Aligarh Colony, which instigated the bloody riots of December 1986.

These riots saw the popularity of the MQM and its leader Altaf Hussain rise and the party's ideology was greatly influenced as a result.

Before October 1986, the urban city of Hyderabad was largely dominated by the Sindhi nationalist party Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) founded by G. M. Syed, giving rise to the nationalist slogan Sindhudesh.

He had fled the country in 1992 after a crackdown against his party was launched.

His supporters refer to him as Pir Sahib (Sufi spiritual guide), Quaid-e-Tehrik (leader of the movement), Rahbar (guide) or Altaf Bhai (brother Altaf).

Since 2015, he has been a fugitive from the Anti Terrorism Court of Pakistan on the charges of murder, targeted killing, treason, inciting violence and hate speech.

He went on trial in the UK in January 2022 for promoting terrorism and unrest through hate speech in Pakistan, and was acquitted the next month.