No surrender: Altaf claims British police have made life difficult for him

MQM chief says people can ask the likes of General Hamid Gul, Brigadier Imtiaz, Gen Alsam Beg if he ever took money.

LAHORE: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain said on Friday that the British police has made life difficult for him, but he is prepared to face any situation that may arise, Express News reported.

“The British government can either seize my passport or kill me,” he alleged at the launch of his book Falsafa-e-Mohabbat in Lahore.

The MQM chief, speaking via telephone, said that he has never bowed down in front of the establishment, and would never bow down or surrender, even if they take his life.

Altaf said that the prime suspects in the Mehran-gate scandal General Aslam Beg were still alive. “General Hamid Gul is alive, Brigadier Imtiaz is alive, Aslam Beg is alive. You can ask any of them whether they sent briefcases full of money or not. And also ask them if Altaf Hussain accepted this money or refused it.”

Altaf claimed that not accepting the money was his crime. “I swear there is no politician other than me who rejected the money. This is my crime.”

He added that he did not take money from army, agencies and that he was ready to give his life for Pakistan, “but do not say I did so for money. Altaf Hussain is not one who takes money to love his country.”

Recounting his nine month detention, Altaf said that he was punished for a crime that he did not commit. “I spent nine months in prison for a crime I did not commit and blamed for climbing a pole in front of Quaid-e-Azam’s mausoleum and unfurled a black flag above the Pakistan flag.”

“I don’t know how to climb a pole. If you say I climbed via a ladder, the question here was of climbing with hands and feet. Nor do I know of any flag. We were standing outside the mausoleum fence.”

At this point, the MQM chief exclaimed that the “Lahore’s public should know today that I am not the product of the establishment.”

Talking about the recent investigations in which MQM's offices were searched and some party associates were briefly detained, Altaf said that nothing can wrest his faith from him.