ISLAMABAD/LONDON: After having levelled a series of allegations and claimed that Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain was involved in terrorism and anti-state activities, the government on Tuesday issued a ‘red notice’ seeking Interpol’s help for his extradition from the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, British officials reacted warily to the development suggesting it will make little difference to the way they are handling the investigations into the MQM and its London-based leader.

According to a spokesman for the interior ministry, the notice was issued against the London-based MQM chief specifically for delivering an anti-Pakistan speech on Aug 22 last year that triggered riots in Karachi.

“Although Altaf Hussain is wanted in several other cases in the country, including the Sept 2010 murder of MQM deputy chief Imran Farooq in London, the red notice was issued for his anti-Pakistan speech and creating unrest in Karachi,” the spokesman said.

He said the red notice was issued on the orders of the antiterrorism court in Karachi which was seized with the hate-speech case. The court declared Altaf Hussain a proclaimed offender and directed the government to produce him before it.

Interpol tight-lipped, refusing to comment on Pakistan’s request

Since there is no extradition treaty between Pakistan and the UK, it is believed that extradition of Mr Hussain will be a complicated issue.

“We know that there is no extradition treaty between Pakistan and the UK, but in such cases the assistance of Interpol is sought,” the interior ministry’s spokesman said, adding that there were precedents that the people wanted in different cases had been brought back through Interpol.

Explaining the procedure, he said in case of bringing any wanted person from abroad, first the interior ministry issued a red notice which was sent to the Interpol cell of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). The cell which represented Interpol in Pakistan forwarded the notice to the Interpol headquarters and then the relevant Interpol staff in a specific country with the help of local police made arrangements for the arrest of wanted accused, he added.

Addressing MQM workers protesting outside the Karachi Press Club against ‘enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of workers’ on Aug 22, 2016, Mr Hussain had raised slogans against Pakistan and called the country “a cancer for the entire world”. Soon after the speech, violence broke out in the country’s commercial hub.

UK reaction

Reacting to news that Pakistan has requested the issuance of an Interpol red notice, the Home Office in London said they would neither confirm nor deny receipt of a request for extradition until such time as an arrest in relation to that request had been made. A red notice, the Home Office said, would make no difference to the UK government’s handling of the case because it would be a matter for the UK police.

For their part the police also said that they would neither confirm nor deny getting a red notice request from Interpol.

Interpol was also tight-lipped, refusing to comment on whether Pakistan had asked for red notice to be issued. That information, Interpol said, “remains under the ownership of that member country”.

A red notice is not the same as an international arrest warrant. It is up to any country to decide how to react to the issuance of a red notice. “Each country,” Interpol says, “decides for itself what legal value to give red notice within their borders.”

The UK authorities do currently have an active investigation into Altaf Husain. They are assessing whether the speech he gave in August 2016 incited violence.

Meanwhile, British Labour MP Naz Shah said she was “pleased to see the authorities in Pakistan are taking action”. She said she had raised the issue with a senior commander at Scotland Yard.

Published in Dawn February 8th, 2017