The evil must stop

In another revelation in the ongoing investigation of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) involvement in money laundering, the Federal Investigation Agency has said it has identified 200 of the 726 ‘donors’ who gave money to the party’s charitable organisation Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation (KKF). The investigative agency described the practice as part of the party’s modus operandi of money laundering. The FIA said most of the people gave donations to the KKF due to an atmosphere of fear. The KKF was established in 1988 and the MQM generated and distributed funds through it. According to the FIA, these funds were misused and an estimated Rs5-6 billion were sent to MQM leaders, including Altaf Hussain, in London.

In 2017, the FIA got an FIR registered against Altaf Hussain and some other party leaders in Islamabad. Later, the case was transferred from the FIA Karachi to the FIA Islamabad. The FIA has expedited its efforts and arrest of some of the suspects is expected soon. An anti-terrorism court in Karachi on November 9 issued non-bailable warrants of arrest for five MQ leaders in the money laundering case.

Sixty-nine foreign bank accounts linked to the KKF have been detected. In August this year, this information was shared with an anti-terrorism court by the FIA, which is conducting an inquiry into terrorism financing and money laundering by the MQM. The amount of money involved is huge — Rs1,321, 509, 608 — which was collected according to the KKF-owned books between 2013 and 2015.

These sums were allegedly obtained by extortion and ransom, and then deposited in personal accounts belonging to trustees of the KKF in the United Kingdom.

Now that we are witnessing a wind of change blowing in the country and see powerful politicians being punished for their acts of omission and commission so shall Altaf Hussain and other leaders of the MQM if found guilty of misdeeds. Pakistan has a long and lamentable history of being robbed by those who rule it. The evil men do lives after them. The evil ought to stop.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 13^th, 2018.

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