‘Conspiracy at work’: My life is under threat, says Altaf

MQM condemns UK’s ‘media trial’ against party chief, calls protest rally on Saturday to ‘show strength’ .

KARACHI:

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain claims that his life is under serious threat and “a new web of conspiracies is being woven” around him.

In a statement issued from London on Thursday, he said that attempts had always been made to bring him and the party into disrepute by fabricated lies and levelling allegations.

“I want to inform the entire nation that I have never bowed my head before the forces of evil. I suffered imprisonment and saw death [at close quarters] but I continued my mission.”

Negative propaganda is prevalent and attempts are being made to implicate him in false cases, he said. “I want to inform the public that I will never bow down my head before any international forces.”

The statement comes a day after the BBC reported that UK prosecutors asked Pakistan to trace two suspects believed to have been involved in the murder of senior MQM leader Dr Imran Farooq who was stabbed outside his house on September 16, 2010.

Altaf Hussain urged the people to follow his teachings should any harm come to his life.



He particularly asked the members of the Rabita Committee, elected representatives and party office bearers to take serious notice of these threats.

This is exactly what the Rabita Committee members did when they held a press conference the same day, saying that their founding chief has no connection with the two murder suspects currently believed to be in Pakistani custody.

“The MQM has no relation with the two men,” said the party’s deputy convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui at the press conference in Karachi. “We want to ask the British government and the police how did they let the two men escape from their country? Why were they were not arrested from Sri Lanka?”

He said the BBC report raised the issue of Altaf Hussain facing 30 murder cases but they failed to say that Altaf Hussain had been set free by the courts in every case.



“Whoever is involved in the murder, be it from our own party, we demand that he should be convicted and punished. This is the responsibility of the British government,” said Siddiqui. This report was mala fide and it raised many questions against the MQM but did not bother getting any answers from them, he asserted.

Referring to Altaf Hussain’s statement of his life being in danger, he said that if conspirators can kill Dr Imran Farooq in England, then Altaf’s life could also be in danger by the same conspirators.

Meanwhile, MQM parliamentarian Farooq Sattar said the aim of BBC’s report was to hurt the sentiments of Altaf Hussain and thousands of his workers. “His party is in favour of media freedom but condemns the media trial by the British.”

Accusations of money laundering were hurled on them and the British authorities also took away Altaf Hussain’s daughter’s laptop and coin boxes from his house. “The money was being collected for years, but why is the issue being raised now? What about the feudal lord’s money stored up in a UK bank?”

He admitted that Altaf Hussain was being investigated in one case in the UK, but did not go into any specifics.

The party was not being allowed to function as a legitimate political party, he claimed.  Calling the move as the worst form of human rights violation, he said the UK government was violating the rights of its citizens as its media was acting like the judiciary and passing verdicts.

Senator and MQM’s lawyer Farogh Naseem claimed that he was called to the TV programme but many of his answers were edited. In his interview, he spoke about Iftikhar Hussain, Altaf Hussain’s nephew currently on bail by the British police, was severely tortured by authorities in the 1990s and was not in the right state of mind.

Protest on Saturday

After the press conference, a number of MQM workers and activists gathered at Nine-Zero, the party’s headquarters. They announced a protest rally in Karachi on Saturday to ‘show their strength’ and express solidarity with chief Altaf Hussain.

“We will show whom the city belongs to and that without us, the city can’t work,” said Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui.

Meanwhile, a Scotland Yard spokesperson, told The Express Tribune that they were “not prepared to discuss any subjects or individuals.” The spokesperson said they were currently assessing the content of the BBC programme.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2014.