The case continues: Afaq plea to quash 2001 case put off second time

MQM-H is fighting for their right to freely engage in politics.

KARACHI: The hearing of a petition filed by the chief of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement or MQM-Haqiqi to quash a case registered in 2001, kept dormant but activated a few days back, was adjourned indefinitely on Wednesday.

The Sindh High Court’s Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Salman Hamid had put it off on Monday as well. MQM-H chief Afaq Ahmed has challenged the decision to implicate him in an alleged kidnapping for ransom case. He has argued that he and his party were being pushed to the wall at the behest of the rival Muttahida Qaumi Movement. After the hearing was adjourned on Wednesday as well, Afaq moved another application for an urgent hearing and was given October 18 as a new date.

Top bureaucrats issued notice

Sindh’s top bureaucrats, the chief secretary and home secretary, were put on notice by a division bench of the Sindh High Court in a constitutional petition filed by the MQM-H.

The papers were filed by the party’s Aleem Ahmed Khan and Syed Iqbal Kazmi of a little known NGO, the Human Rights Commission for South Asia (not to be confused with the HRCP).

They are fighting for their right to freely engage in politics, which they argue the state is thwarting by incarcerating their party’s chief, Afaq Ahmed. Afaq was about to be released last week after being behind bars since 2004. He was about to step out on bail when he was detained again, this time under the maintenance of public order rules. Two new cases were registered against him after that and he was rearrested.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2011.