Senior MQM-P leader Haider Abbas Rizvi returned to Pakistan after two years. He will stay in the country permanently now, MQM-P leaders have said. Rizvi, who had been living in Canada and Dubai for the past couple of years, had come to Pakistan in June 2018. But he had hastily left the country for Dubai after a few hours. He reached Islamabad and went directly to the parliament lodges on Monday, according to a party leader. Rizvi would come to Karachi within a week. The MQM-P leader, who is wanted in several cases, has been brought to Pakistan to run party affairs, senior party members have said on the condition of anonymity. “Rizvi is back in the country on a permanent basis,” an MQM-P leader said. Party Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui had met officials and convinced them to allow Rizvi to settle in Pakistan, he added. Rizvi arrived in Pakistan after the party received a “green signal” from officials of an institution, the MQM-P leader said. The once-powerful MQM split into two factions after its founder Altaf Hussain’s incendiary speech against the country and senior military officials on August 22, 2016. The Altaf-led MQM had bagged 24 National Assembly seats in the 2013 election. But the MQM-P — which parted ways with its London-based founder in 2016 — could only gain six seats in the 2018 elections. The decision to recall Rizvi appears to be aimed at restructuring the MQM-P which has lost several big names in the recent times following the expulsion of Dr Farooq Sattar from the party. A few party sympathizers had initially suggested that Rizvi be called back to the country for a week to restructure it but the suggestion was dismissed by Siddiqui, another MQM-P leader said. Another reason behind Rizvi’s return is his 85-year-old mother, who has been suffering from a lung disease for the past couple of years. He has been asked by the party leadership not to contact anyone, according to MQM-P leaders. Rizvi is expected to hold a press conference along with other party members upon his return to Karachi, they said.
