ISLAMABAD: Altaf Hussain, the London-based MQM chief, was formally booked in the Dr Imran Farooq murder case on Saturday.

Mr Hussain, who already faces money laundering charges in London, was nominated in an FIR registered over the murder of Imran Farooq, a former lawmaker and leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

The government, through the counter-terrorism wing (CTW) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), is the complainant in the case.

Others named in the FIR were Iftikhar Hussain, a senior MQM leader and Mr Hussain’s relative, Moazzam Ali Khan, Khalid Shamim, Kashif Khan Kamran and Syed Mohsin Ali. The five have been charged with conspiring, assisting, abetting and ultimately murdering Dr Farooq.

Three suspects already in custody to be produced before ATC tomorrow

The case has been registered under sections 7, 34, 109, 120-B and 302 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The three men in custody — Moazzam Ali Khan, Khalid Shamim and Mohsin Ali — are likely to be produced before an anti-terrorism court on Monday.

Many have questioned whether it was a coincidence that the FIR was registered on the day of the local government elections in Karachi, a city MQM has ruled for years. Some legal experts expressed surprise on another count — registration of the case in Pakistan as the crime was committed in another country.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had recently disclosed that the government had decided to register an FIR for the Dr Imran Farooq murder case in Pakistan.

“After the expiry of the remand of the key accused under our custody, we only have two options: to let them go, or book them,” he said.

Mr Khan indicated that revelations made during the investigation were sufficient grounds for not releasing them. He also told reporters that the United Kingdom had not sought the extradition of the three suspects Scotland Yard had been given access to.

Dr Farooq was stabbed and bludgeoned to death near his apartment in Green Lane, Edgware, in Sept 2010. Investigators from the London Metropolitan Police, which has been probing the murder, flew to Pakistan in July and September this year to interrogate the suspects who are being held by Pakistani intelligence agencies.

Moazzam Ali, who allegedly facilitated Mr Farooq’s killers, was arrested in Karachi in March, while Khalid Shamim and Mohsin Ali were arrested by the Frontier Corps in Chaman, Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan.

Two of the suspects, Mohsin Ali and Kashif Khan Kamran, are said to have acquired British visas on the basis of their admission to the London Academy of Management Sciences.

Mohsin Ali had travelled to the UK in Feb 2010, while Kashif Khan Kamran arrived in the city in early September the same year.

According to information shared by the UK with Pakistani agencies, phone records show that they usually moved together and were allegedly in touch with Iftikhar Hussain.

The frequency of contacts between the three men, as well as other information, led investigators to believe that instructions for the murder of Dr Farooq had been issued directly by Altaf Hussain.

There were rumours at the time of his death that he had developed serious differences with Altaf Hussain and was in the process of laying the groundwork for his own faction of the MQM.

The investigators also concluded that the two suspects monitored Dr Farooq’s movements for some time before executing their plan. They left Britain hours after the murder, on Sept 16, 2010, for Sri Lanka, and then travelled to Karachi on Sept 19.

Mohsin Ali and Khalid Shamim were interrogated by a team of the Scotland Yard in July. Moazzam Ali, who was arrested by law enforcement agencies in Karachi this year, faces charges of arranging tickets, visas and finances for Mohsin Ali and Kashif Khan Kamran’s visit to the UK.

Kashif Khan Kamran’s whereabouts are unknown, and rumours suggest he may be dead.

Khalid Shamim, meanwhile, is accused of being a part of the murder plot and the probe suggests that he had met Mohsin Ali and Kashif Khan Kamran and had arranged their meeting with Moazzam Ali.

MQM reaction: Dr Farooq Sattar, MQM’s Parliamentary Leader in the National Assembly, condemned the FIR registration against Mr Hussain, calling it “a biased and prejudiced act”.

“What Chaudhry Nisar has done to us since March has evoked a strong reaction and the [people’s court] has given a verdict in our favour through the ballot. Now, after the registration of this FIR, the MQM will emerge as a national-level party in the 2018 general elections, with its chief minister governing Sindh,” he claimed.

He said the government was suffering from “Altaf- and MQM-phobia” and was making all-out efforts to push the party against the wall.

“But the outcome is before us: the results of local government elections in Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas were unprecedented, where the graph of our popularity reached new heights. And now the same will happen in Sanghar when polls are held there,” he said.

He said this should serve as an eye-opener for policy-makers. “They should respect the mandate of the political parties and follow a policy of inclusion, and not exclusion,” he said.

He said the government should try to understand the people’s aspirations and formulate a national agenda accordingly in consultation with other political parties.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2015