Altaf Hussain in Trouble

 December 23, 2012

By Saeed Qureshi

MQM’s chief custodian and uncrowned king Altaf Hussain, of late, appears to have landed in a deep trouble. He is presumably faced with a double jeopardy. He has come under suspicion of his connection with Dr. Imran Farooq’s murder. Secondly he has picked up a row with the Supreme Court of Pakistan on delimitation of constituencies.

The investigation of Dr. Imran Farooq has, of late, assumed new twists and turns. The London Metropolitan Police has stepped up the investigation about the murder of the Dr. Imran Farooq, a former colleague and friend of Altaf Hussain. 

Imran Farooq a one-time celebrity and leading light of MQM was murdered in mysterious circumstances on September16, 2010, outside his home at Green Lane, Edgeware in North London. Dr Imran Farooq had co-founded the All Pakistan Muhajir Students Organization (APMSO), and also had been the deputy convener of the party.

It was after almost a lull of two years, that the Metropolitan Police, in connection with Dr. Imran’s murder, raided the business office of Altaf Hussain in Edgeware and conducted comprehensive search for two days. The intensive search was the follow up action of the various pieces of vital evidence and important tips that the London police was able to collect since 2010.

It was also reported that although several persons were interrogated yet no arrests were made. British High Commissioner in Pakistan Adam Thomson also confirmed in a statement that Dr. Imran Farooq was a British national and their police was investigating a murder of its citizen.

The second jeopardy came as a backlash of his stunning remarks directed at the Supreme Court in which he argued that “that delimitation of electoral constituencies was not the job of the courts, and it would not help the cause of peace”. He obliquely warned that “those who were trying to hatch conspiracies against the MQM would be eliminated.”

In response to his threatening outburst, the Supreme Court retaliated by issuing a contempt of court notice to him with orders to appear in the court and explain his point of view. Understandably he cannot come to Pakistan and thus there might be more retaliation from the Supreme Court.

It has been observed in various media columns that he stands a frightening chance of losing his residency in England due to his stinging remarks about the supreme court of Pakistan. A senior Pakistan-born and England- based lawyer Sibgatullah Qadri stated that if a foreign court convicts a British citizen against contempt charges, the British government can terminate the citizenship rights of such individual. He asserted that in Britain the contempt of court is considered as serious a crime as murder and is not taken lightly.

Altaf Hussain sneaked out of Pakistan one month before the launching of the Operation Clean-up (June 19, 1992 to August 14, 1994).  His flight from Pakistan also was the result of an attempt on his life on 21 December 1991 that was the third of its kind. He was given political asylum by the British government and is staying there since then.

Altaf Hussain founded All Pakistan Muhajir Student Organization”APMSO in June 1978 that was later renamed as Muhajir Qaumi Movement (MQM) in March 1984. It was finally renamed as Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in June 1997.

Altaf Hussain with a mercurial and audacious temperament has been issuing statements that cut across the two nation ideology thus denunciating the creation of Pakistan. In one such statement he is recorded to have said that,

“Division of the subcontinent was the biggest blunder in the history of mankind and Nehru and Abdul Kalam Azad are responsible for it because they rejected that grouping formula and greater autonomy for Muslim majority province of India. If they accepted it then Jinnah would have never demanded separate Pakistan and Jinnah was ready for co-exist within India.”

Altaf Hussain was having 3576 cases for various charges against him. But all the cases were dropped under the National Reconciliation Ordinance issued by the former President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, on 5 October 2007.