LONDON, June 12: A short and sharp discussion ensued in the House of Commons here late Monday night on Pakistan with particular reference to President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s dual role as head of state and chief of army staff and Altaf Hussain’s role in the May 12 carnage in Karachi.

George Galloway, the maverick MP, moving an adjournment motion gave a detailed account of the events in Pakistan since March 9, when Gen Musharraf sent Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on forced leave following the filing of a presidential reference against him.

Discussing the May 12 bloodbath in Karachi, Mr Galloway, who was expelled from the Labour party in October 2003 for opposing the Iraq war, said: ‘Altaf laid siege to the city (Karachi). The main thoroughfares were blocked, lawyers and their supporters were attacked outside the Karachi bar with batons and the MQM militants fired bullets indiscriminately into the peaceful demonstrators.”

Continuing, he said that his primary concern and that of the most Pakistanis living in Britain was: “Why Altaf Hussain is being allowed to conduct from a sofa in Edgware a terrorist campaign and a campaign of extortion of businesses and citizens in Sindh, and why was he given British citizenship?”

He said he found it extraordinary that in the middle of a so-called war on terror there is such a bloody reign of terror in a major Pakistani city “a terrorist cell is operating from Edgware in the form of the MQM. Every day, Altaf Hussain, a British citizen, addresses his puppets in Karachi, giving them instructions on how they should govern, including how they should handle peaceful demonstrations.”

He said if this man (Altaf Hussain), instead of being a stooge of General Musharraf and of a government allied to his own, were a hook-handed, glass-eyed ranting mullah (a left handed reference to Omar Bakri), he would at best already be in Belmarsh and at worst he would be on a plane being deported to the country from where he absconded from murder charges.

“Citizenship was given to Hussain under this government in 1999 and it is my belief that he was refused citizenship under the previous administration. I want to know why he was given citizenship and why he is being allowed to operate with impunity? “George Galloway asked.

Interestingly, it was not the Minister for Asia but one for Europe, Mr. Geoffery Hoon, who responded to the adjournment motion.

He said that the UK remained committed to the declaration made by Commonwealth Heads of Governments in Malta in 2005, to which Pakistan also agreed that until the two offices of head of state and chief of army staff are separated, the process of democratisation in Pakistan will not be irreversible.