LONDON: Faced with the financial crunch following the Rangers operation in the mega city of Karachi, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) is considering to move its international secretariat from Elizabeth House to a nearby small residential property owned by the MQM.
Sources within the MQM told The News that the MQM chiefagreed that the office should be moved from its current location in order to save huge costs on running the international secretariat and to keep the London operations of the party afloat.
On Shahzeb Khanzada Show it was revealed on Thursday night that the decision to move the iconic “international secretariat” was discussed much before the 22nd August provocative speech by the MQM supremo during meetings of London and Pakistan coordination committee.
Sources have confirmed to this correspondent that the decision to move the international secretariat has been taken because of the huge financial difficulties faced by the MQM in its stronghold of Karachi where it has become difficult for the party to raise funds in the manner it used to – through public donations and from businesses in the name of party funds.
For around two decades, the MQM has controlled Karachi – and to large extent, the politics of Pakistan – from its Edgware, North London, secretariat but now the curtain is set to fall on this office as the MQM is preparing to move to Whitchurch Lane’s residential property belonging to it.
Land registry records show that the MQM chief acquired 1st floor of Elizabeth house (54-58 High Street, Edgware, Midddx HA8 7EJ) for £385,000 on 13 June 2001. The current value of this property (from where the London wing of the MQM Rabita Committee ran 24 hours operation in coordination with the Nine Zero until last week) is over £1 million. For the MQM, it didn’t matter at all to pay the monthly business rate of around £18,000 and council tax on this property but now the situation has changed and none other than the MQM founder wants to cut the costs as he faces crisis of leadership.
The MQM chief realises that the Pakistan chapter of the party will no longer be able to make transfers through conventional ways - including visits to London, hundi and bank transfers - and anyone found doing so will face troubles with the government.
The Borough of Barnet told The News that the business rate of this property per annum is £18,000 which is a drain on the party sources. At least seven people working for the MQM from London get monthly payment of around £25,000 and that bill, including the running costs of the office, stands easily at around £50,000. Then there is security bill of MQM leader’s protection and his house expenditures which are around £50,000 per month.
An insider told that the MQM wants to put the international secretariat on rent and it can easily earn around £5,000 in rent per month and the business rates of £18,000 per annum will be paid by the tenant, not the party.
The MQM could have weathered these costs easily but it has paid over £5 million to its three different sets of lawyers and the lobbying firm in the last five years after the murder of Dr Imran Farooq that also led to the money-laundering investigation. The legal bill continues to grow as the MQM lawyers are known for charging premier rates to their clients.
An investigation by The News shows that the Whitchurch Lane semi-detached house in Canons Park was bought by the MQM on 13 April 2004. It’s understood that this freehold property is owned by the MQM supremo but on the land registry records, its owners are registered as “Tariq Mir and Mohammed Anwar”. Land registry records show that the MQM paid £430,000 for this house at the time of the purchase but its current value is around £850,000.
Prior to the 22nd August speech, it was decided that the whole property will be refurbished and walls in one room were to be made sound proof for the use of MQM chief for meetings with the party leadership to ensure that there is no bugging.
On this property, the MQM will have to only pay around £2,500 business tax which is applied on the residential properties but the party will have to inform the local council of Barnet if the residential property were to be used for business or official purposes.
The MQM raised millions of rupees at its free will through public donations and contributions from the business community as well as members of the public. Its well-organised and well-entrenched grass roots units at every nook and cranny of the Karachi ensured that everyone living in the city of nearly 18 million - from the street-hawker and beggars to the mega rich Karachi elite and everyone else in between – contributed to the MQM funds. There are widespread allegations that these funds were collected by the strongmen and gangsters linked with the MQM through highly controversial techniques involving violence, coercion, kidnapping including murders but the MQM has always denied any wrongdoing.
It was under Pervez Musharraf and through his administration’s blessings that the MQM became a well-organised money making machine - channeling these funds to London, Dubai, America, Canada, South Africa and elsewhere – by providing political support to the dictator. Under the PPP regime, the flow of money from Karachi to the MQM outside of Pakistan continued as the PPP played along to keep its political ally happy but the start of Karachi operation under General Raheel Sharif’s command, with complete backing by the Nawaz government, has changed fortunes of the MQM dramatically and now the MQM is finding it difficult to raise funds because most of the strongmen of the party and street organisers are on the run and the business community at all levels has become defiant, while ordinary members of the public much more secure and confident.
Several MQM leaders this correspondent spoke to on condition of anonymity said that the biggest problem for the party in recent months has been the “crackdown on its financial resources”.
These party leaders in Pakistan and UK agreed that things will never be the same again for the MQM, and for the London chapter of the party, it will be impossible to survive if it relied on the flow of money from Pakistan. For the party to sustain, they agreed, the MQM will have to find alternative means.