Special team to probe cases against Wasim Akhtar

KARACHI: A special police team has been formed to investigate the Muttahida Qaumi Movement's (MQM) nominated mayor for Karachi, Wasim Akhtar, in various cases registered against him within the Malir police's jurisdiction.

Akhtar, along with other political leaders, was taken into custody in the terror facilitation case against Dr Asim Hussain after a court rejected their interim bail on July 19. Later, the Malir police took Akhtar's custody in the two cases lodged against him.

The special team, headed by Investigations SP Malik Altaf, is investigating him at present in two cases pertaining to MQM chief's speeches wherein he reportedly criticised the military establishment and explained a married couple's physical relations in detail.



In the speech pertaining to the army, delivered in July last year, the MQM chief criticised the Rangers' actions [against MQM workers] in Karachi and compared it with the Indian army's atrocities in Indian Kashmir.The other speech was broadcast in February this year wherein the MQM chief talks about the intimate relationship of a husband and wife and explains the process of reproduction.

"We are trying to collect the record of two more FIRs registered against Akhtar at two police stations. He will then be booked and arrested in those cases as well," Altaf told The Express Tribune.

Around two dozen cases are registered against Akhtar at various police stations of the city with the majority of them being registered at District Malir. However, Akhtar was arrested in only those cases in which he had not been granted bail by the respective court. "Some 25 cases are registered against Akhtar while so far we have arrested him only in the two cases in which the courts have rejected his bail," said Malir SSP Rao Anwar.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 26^th, 2016.