Terror facilitation case: MQM’s Wasim Akhtar remanded into police custody

Development comes days after MQM’s mayor-elect and three others were detained after ATC rejected their interim bail

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) has remanded Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)’s mayor-elect Wasim Akhtar into police custody till July 25 in a terror facilitation case.

The development comes days after the ATC rejected the interim bail of two MQM leaders, including Akhtar and Rauf Siddiqui, Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) president Anis Qaimkhani and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Abdul Qadir Patel in a case related to sheltering and providing medical treatment to alleged militants and criminals.



Former petroleum minister Dr Asim Hussain, who is also a close aide of former president Asif Ali Zardari, is already under custody of law enforcers over terror facilitation charges. He was held by the paramilitary Rangers on charges of corruption and facilitating terrorists in August 2015.

The FIR registered by the Rangers deputy superintendent alleges Dr Asim provided medical treatment and shelter to terrorists and criminals on the behest of the arrested leaders, as well as Saleem Shahzad.

Akhtar was handed over to SSP Malir Rao Anwar for interrogation in two cases pertaining to controversial speeches of MQM chief Altaf Hussain.

Akhtar, Siddiqui and Qaimkhani had been detained by police on Tuesday inside the ATC after the court rejected their interim bail. However, Patel managed to escape from the court premises but later in the day surrendered to police at Boat Basin police station.

Declaring his arrest ‘unconstitutional and unlawful’ MQM leader Akhtar, who is also Karachi’s mayor nominee, said he was being politically victimised. “Even our lawyers are not being allowed to step outside the ATC and file a formal appeal in the high court,” he said.



Vowing to face the trial, PPP leader Patel said he did not come back to Pakistan from London to escape the court. “I came back to the country from London to attend the hearing of the case then why would I escape from the court,” he asked.

Last month, the ATC had rejected bail for Dr Asim in the terror facilitation case. The former federal minister is currently in the custody of National Accountability Bureau in Karachi.