Non-bailable warrants issued for Farooq Sattar, others

Cases pertain to listening to, facilitating Altaf's incendiary Aug 22 speech

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court issued again on Monday non-bailable warrants of arrest for the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) - Pakistan head, his second-in-command and other leaders of the party in five amalgamated cases pertaining to the August 22 incendiary speech of party founder Altaf Hussain.

ATC-II ordered the police to arrest Farooq Sattar, Amir Khan, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and other top leaders of the party absconding in the cases and present them in court till January 31.

Arrest warrants out against Farooq Sattar and others

This time the ATC-II directed that warrants should be issued through the additional inspector general, a post equivalent to the city's police chief, as investigation officers submitted that they were unable to arrest the absconders due to their political stature.

At the outset of the hearing, the IOs filed a failure report in compliance with the previously issued warrants and contended that their high-ups should be directed to intervene in this matter.

An officer of the police's legal branch, DSP Mazhar Ali, said that the arrests of MQM leaders and lawmakers could not be made due to a 'policy matter', adding that they enjoy public mandate.

Contrary to this submission by the police, two MPAs, Kunwar Naveed Jameel and Kamran Farooqi, and others leaders of the party, Qamar Mansoor, Shahid Pasha and Gulfaraz Khan Khattak, have been jailed in judicial custody in these and other cases.

Meanwhile, the court granted bail to Jameel in three out of five of these cases against a surety bond of Rs100,000. He has already obtained bail in the remaining two cases.

During the hearing, the court also rejected a bail plea moved by Khattak and nine workers of the party.



The cases pertain to violent incidents that occurred on August 22 last year during and after a telephonic speech by Altaf.

In the speech to party leaders and workers who were staging a hunger strike outside the Karachi Press Club, Altaf had made controversial remarks about the state and had urged his workers to attack the media over what he claimed was less coverage to him.

Since then, the party split into two factions- MQM-Pakistan and MQM-London. The Pakistan group is headed by Sattar while the London's is headed by Nadeem Nusrat.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24^th, 2017.