KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain on Tuesday announced once again that he was stepping down from the post of the party’s chairman over the remarks made by Federal Defence Minister Khawaja Asif regarding ‘Mohajirs’.

According to a statement on the MQM website, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said in the National Assembly and on a television channel that, “Only people coming from Ludhiana and Jalandhar were genuine Mohajirs. All the rest are fake Mohajirs.”

Talking to Geo news on Tuesday morning, Altaf lashed out at the National Assembly claiming that the ‘Mohajir community had been mocked and enough was enough’.

The MQM supremo said Asif had made fun of Mohajirs which was intolerable. Altaf added he has decided to leave the party leadership in protest of Asif’s statements.

He expressed his disappointment over the National Assembly’s silence over Asif’s speech.

The MQM chief said that he had been trying to unite the Muslim minorities for the past 37 years but now he feels that people don’t want to listen to him anymore. He added that “I will always remain the founder but am now distancing myself from the party leadership.”

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