Jocelyn Bain Hogg for Newsweek Pakistan
Exiled leader of MQM also charged with inciting terrorism after speech in which he chanted ‘down with Pakistan.’
Police charged the exiled leader of an influential political party with treason and inciting terrorism on Tuesday, accusing him of provoking violence at a protest a day earlier in Karachi.
Altaf Hussain, leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) which rules Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city, was accused with a dozen other party leaders of raising anti-Pakistan slogans at the demonstration on Monday.
The violence erupted soon after Hussain gave a telephone address to supporters from London in which he castigated the media for not giving due coverage to his workers. Following his exhortations, MQM activists clashed with police and ransacked a private television station, leaving at least one man dead and seven others injured.
According to a police report, seen by AFP, he chanted “down with Pakistan” and called the country a “bastion of terrorism.”
The MQM, run by Hussain from London—and accused of using extortion and murder to cement its grip on power—has long been blamed for ethnic violence in Karachi. It has clashed repeatedly with authorities who, according to rights groups, have resorted to hundreds of extra-judicial killings during a “clean up” operation that began in 2013 in a city already plagued by violence.
Last year Pakistani police registered a case under terrorism laws against Hussain over a speech criticizing the country’s military. Previous charges have not resulted in action or extradition requests against Hussain, who has lived in London since fleeing a military operation against his party in 1992 and is a British citizen.
Hussain remains a highly influential figure in Karachi, Pakistan’s economic center and main port, though observers believe his grip on power is gradually diminishing in his absence and his party is no longer the force it once was.
He was arrested in June 2014 by British police on suspicion of money laundering charges, but later released on bail, leading to speculation that his once cozy ties with London—who viewed his party as a bulwark against Taliban terrorism—were fraying. As well as the money-laundering case, British police are also probing the murder of MQM politician Imran Farooq in London in 2010.