KARACHI - Former Karachi mayor and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Senator Syed Mustafa Kamal has tendered his resignation to chairman Senate.
Source said Kamal had been inactive in the party for the last four months. He left the country and stayed away from the party affairs. He was also not in contact with the party officials. Sources said after growing difference with the MQM leadership on various issues, Kamal tendered his resignation as Senator. He faxed his resignation directly to the chairman Senate.
Earlier, Kamal was reported out of the country for the treatment of his wife and spending time with his in-laws in Dar-e-Salaam, Tanzania.
Mustafa Kamal who started his political carrier in MQM as a worker and also served as a telephone operator at MQM headquarters Nine-Zero. He remained IT Minister in Sindh government from 2003 to 2005. Kamal became a prominent figure by the virtue of his tremendous performance during his tenure as Karachi Mayor from 2005 to 2010.
Talking to The Nation MQM Deputy convener Engineer Nasir Jamal said reports regarding resignation of Senator Mustafa Kamal were baseless and rumors. He said Kamal would continue to represent MQM in the Senate.
Agencies add: Senate Secretariat has confirmed that Mustafa Kamal has tendered his resignation from the seat over personal issues.
Former mayor Syed Mustafa Kamal and former Deputy Convener of the Co-ordination Committee of the MQM Anis Qaimkhani had developed serious differences with the party and fled Karachi.
Mustafa Kamal were in tears after being humiliated by the party leader as well as by the workers and had been living in Dubai and America – refusing requests to return to Karachi.
Sources earlier revealed that Kamal was working for Malik Riaz in Dubai but that was only a cover and the actual story was something else.
A private had reported on Monday that Babar Ghauri had denied in Washington that Kamal had differences with the party.“Some incidents have disheartened Mustafa Kamal to the point that he is staying away from Karachi and not involved in the party affairs anymore. He is refusing to be in touch with the party and feels that he has been very unfairly treated. He fails to understand why he has been degraded openly within the party by the leadership,” a source from Nine Zero, pleading complete anonymity, confided.
He said when Kamal refused to return to Karachi over the direction of the party leader Altaf Hussain, he was asked to tender his resignation from the Senate seat. Kamal was in London in June this year to attend party meetings but left Pakistan soon after going back to Karachi and has rarely been seen in public.
It has been learnt that the MQM approached Kamal with an offer to return to Pakistan to be part of the local bodies election campaign but the former Karachi mayor was defiant to such an extent that he was no more answering telephone calls or replying emails of his party and friends. Kamal had not answered any calls or emails for over two months.
“Anis Qaimkhani has also left Karachi and lives in another country these days, it’s not Dubai,” said the source. During military operation against the MQM, Anis Qaimkhani suffered torture and went to jail but refused to compromise, unlike many leaders who cut deals with the army against their own comrades. Those who know Qaimkhani within the party are aware that he has worked round the clock at the Nine Zero almost all his life.
“People have right to join and leave parties. If someone gets busy and leaves party that’s fine. People join parties, do their job and leave when they want to,” Ghauri told a private TV channel.