ISLAMABAD: The Government of Pakistan on Saturday registered Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Dr Imran Farooq’s murder case against MQM chief, Altaf Hussain, and other leaders of the party.
Among others nominated in the case are MQM senior leader Mohammad Anwar, Iftikhar Hussain, who are said to be a close aides of the MQM chief, and suspects Muazzam Ali Khan, Kashif Khan Kamran, Mohsin Ali Syed and Khalid Shamim.
The case was filed by Federal Investigation Authority’s (FIA) counter-terrorism wing in Islamabad under Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).
The development comes days after Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan announced that the FIR of the Dr. Imran Farooq murder case would be registered in Pakistan.
Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, Nisar said MQM leader Imran Farooq was a Pakistani national and it was the responsibility of the state of Pakistan to bring his killers to court. He said all evidence and investigations concerning the high-profile murder case had been exchanged with Scotland Yard and that, after the registration of the FIR, it would be decided how to extend the investigation process to other facilitators.
Dr Farooq, a prominent member of the MQM was murdered in 2010 outside his residence in London as a result of multiple stabs and a blow to his head.
The former MQM leader was twice elected an MP in Pakistan, but went into hiding in 1992 when the government ordered a military crackdown against party activists in Karachi. He later claimed asylum in Britain in 1999.
MQM chief Altaf Hussain has also been living in self-imposed exile in Britain for over two decades.
The news comes as polling in Karachi for local government elections was under way, with MQM as a strong contender.
MQM leader Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, reacting to the development, questioned the ‘timing’ of the case, adding that “it was an attempt to malign the MQM.”
“Our voters will clearly know the intention behind such a decision by the government. MQM workers will not be deterred by such baseless allegations,” he said, while talking to different TV channels.
