KARACHI: The Federal Investi­gation Agency (FIA) has identified at least 200 of the 726 ‘donors’ who gave money to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Khid­mat-i-Khalq Foundation (KKF).

The federal institution described the practice as money laundering by the party’s top leadership, including its founder Altaf Hussain, it emerged.

FIA sources told Dawn that the KKF was established in 1988 and the MQM mostly generated/distributed funds through it. These funds were ‘misused’ and an estimated Rs5-6 billion was sent to the MQM leaders, including Altaf Hussain, in London.

The FIA took cognisance of the matter and got an FIR registered against Altaf Hussain and some other party leaders in 2017.

Subsequently, the case was transferred from the FIA Karachi to the FIA Islamabad, where a special team of the agency’s counter-terrorism wing was dealing with it.

Ostensibly, the FIA had expedited its efforts and arrest of some nominated suspects was expected soon, said the sources.

The FIA has prepared a list of 726 persons who allegedly gave donations to the KKF. Donations ranged between a few thousands and millions of rupees, revealed the FIA sources.

A senior official familiar with the case told Dawn that most of the people tended to give donations to the KKF under ‘duress’.

Interestingly, the FIA list of alleged donors included at least 29 doctors. There were at least three professors on the list, including the late Prof Dr Hassan Zafar Arif, who was found dead under mysterious circumstances in the Ibrahim Hyderi area of Karachi recently.

It may be recalled that an anti-terrorism court of Karachi had on Friday issued non-bailable arrest warrants for five MQM leaders — former federal minister Babar Ghauri, former senator Ahmed Ali, deputy mayor of Karachi Arshad Vohra, Khawaja Sohail Mansoor and Khawaja Rehan — in the money laundering case.

Meanwhile, the Muttahida Quami Movement-London has questioned the competency of the FIA for investigating the money laundering case.

It said that although Prof Arif was murdered, a notice had been issued in his name which was a condemnable act.

Separately, an MQM-P leader, who wished not to be named, told Dawn that the KKF was still active in welfare activities. He said the KKF was running 12 Maiyet service buses, besides two hospitals — one in Karachi and the other in Hyderabad.

The KKF was being run by former senator Ahmed Ali who has been declared an absconder by an anti-terrorism court recently.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2018