Altaf’s remarks should be taken seriously: Envoy

British HC says only London police can decide to take any action.

ISLAMABAD:

The British high commissioner to Pakistan said on Wednesday that London’s Metropolitan Police had been ‘flooded with complaints’ against Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain for allegedly inciting violence in Karachi.

Speaking at a news conference, Adam Thomson said that Altaf’s remarks on Sunday threatening Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf supporters and demanding Karachi to be separated from the rest of Pakistan should be taken seriously.

However, Thomson insisted that it was up to the Metropolitan police, and not the British government, whether to proceed against the MQM chief.

Altaf’s statement caused uproar across the country, although the MQM chief clarified the next day that he didn’t make any demand for secession and that his statement was misinterpreted by the media.

“The British police are fiercely independent of the British government. And it is for the British police to investigate allegations of incitement to violence or incitement to hatred,” was Thomson’s reply when asked about the fate of ‘thousands of complaints’ against Altaf.

Thomson pointed out that “as far as the United Kingdom is concerned, we have very strong laws which prohibit incitement to violence or incitement to hatred.  And we take these laws seriously.”

The British envoy added that the Metropolitan police do investigate such allegations seriously and on every occasion they have to make a judgment about whether they can bring a successful prosecution or not.

Commenting on MQM’s statement retracting Altaf’s remarks, he said, “So he is not as I understand it maintaining a position that he is definitely going to disintegrate. But I don’t want to quibble. I repeat my first point which is that such statements are taken very seriously,” he added.

To another question, the envoy ruled out extradition of the MQM chief to Pakistan. “About handing over an individual, you have to go through the whole extradition process for that. And as you know, that is complicated in the UK-Pakistan case as there is no extradition treaty. It doesn’t make it impossible, but it does make it quite difficult,” he added.

Switching the subject to the May 11 parliamentary polls, Thomson said the elections were “indeed a step forward for Pakistan”.

“I believe that Pakistan and Pakistanis can be very proud indeed of the May 11 elections. They stand taller in the community of nations as a result of 11 May,” he said. However, he voiced concerns over certain media reports suggesting disenfranchisement of women in some constituencies. “Of course, not everything on May 11 went perfectly. We are well aware of the claims. Things needed to be better and indeed lessons will, no doubt, be learnt from these elections,” Thomson said.


Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2013.