Muttahida Qaumi Movement generally known as MQM, is a liberal-secular political party of Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

. It is generally known as a party which holds immense mobilizing potential in province of Sindh

Sindh

Sindh historically referred to as Ba'ab-ul-Islam , is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. It is also locally known as the "Mehran". Though Muslims form the largest religious group in Sindh, a good number of Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus can...

. The student organization, All Pakistan Muhajir Student Organization (APMSO), was founded in 1978 by Altaf Hussain

Altaf Hussain

Altaf Hussain is the founder and leader of the Muttahida Quami Movement . The MQM emerged as the third largest political party in the national assembly of Pakistan during 1988 and 1990 elections. The MQM secured representation in the parliamentary elections held in the northern areas of Pakistan...

 which subsequently gave birth to the Muhajir Quami Movement in 1984. The organization maintains liberal, progressive and secular stances on many political and social issues.

In 1997, the MQM officially removed the term Muhajir

Muhajir people

Muhajir [literally – migrants] is a term commonly used especially by Pakistanis to describe the Muslim immigrants who chose to settle in Pakistan and shifted their domicile after partition of British India into Pakistan and India. Some had participated in the movement for creation of Pakistan in...

 (which denotes the party's roots of Urdu

Urdu

Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

-speaking Muslims) from its name, and replaced it with Muttahida ("United").