Excerpt Of The Day

The following is from page 61 of Migrants and Militants: Fun and Urban Violence in Pakistan by Oskar Verkaaik, describing the early years of the MQM:

Largely the same group of young men who would establish the MQM on 18 March 1984 founded the All Pakistan Muhajir Student Organization (APMSO) on 11 June 1978. The group had met in the pharmacy department of Karachi University in 1974. Because of a shift toward a semester system, a group of twenty-seven students had not been registered on time and failed to gain admission. They raised an Intermediate Student Action Committee to demand midterm admission. The president of this committee was twenty-one-year-old Altaf Hussain who even at that early stage made quite an impression on his fellow students as he wore a revolutionary cap and shockingly tight trousers. Under his leadership the committee was successful. The students were admitted and the university vice-chancellor resigned.

Of course, this begs the question: were Altaf Hussain's "shockingly tight trousers" a mere reflection of contemporary Mohajir fashion, or was he actually the origin of the present day Mohajir uniform (tight pants with a big belt with a silver buckle)?