LONDON/ISLAMABAD: The UK’s Metropolitan Police closed on Thursday an investigation into possible money laundering by Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain and said that they would no longer seek to seize the money found in the MQM properties in the course of the investigation.

The police said that during the course of investigation, six people had been arrested, 11 others interviewed under caution and nine premises searched. Despite all that work, the police said: “There is not a realistic prospect of a successful prosecution under UK law, therefore the investigation is now complete and no further action will be taken.”

Over £500,000 in cash will now be returned to the MQM and £30,000 seized from the London home of Karachi businessman Sarfraz Merchant will also be returned. For the British state to have held onto the money, it would have had to establish that it was the proceeds of crime or was intended for use in unlawful conduct. The police said that despite their long running investigation they didn’t have that evidence.

Mr Merchant said that even his own lawyers were surprised by the British decision. “While I am delighted to have been cleared, there appears to have been political interference with the UK’s police investigation,” he said.

Nisar voices concern during meeting with British envoy

He said he would now seek to recover the money he had spent on lawyers in the UK as he tried to defend his name. He estimates the cost at over £1 million.

The MQM did not respond to Dawn’s request for a statement giving its reaction to the money laundering case being dropped.

Despite the decisions on the financial cases, the inquiry into the 2010 murder of senior MQM leader Dr Imran Farooq is still ongoing. The British police have asked for the extradition of Mohsin Ali Syed, but Pakistani authorities have said they will either hand over all three suspects who have been detained in Pakistan in connection with the murder case or none at all.

The UK police told Dawn: “Detec­tives from the Met Police Counter Terrorism Command (SO15) investigating Dr Farooq’s murder remain committed to finding those responsible.”

MQM chief Altaf Hussain faces two other investigations in London. One relates to a speech he made in August after which his supporters attacked some media houses in Karachi.

The words he used at that time are currently being examined by the Crown Prosecution Service which is deciding if any crimes have been committed under appropriate UK legislation. The main legal question is whether the speech incited the violence in Karachi.

Mr Hussain’s other earlier speeches are being investigated for possible breaches of hate speech legislation in the UK.

Govt reaction

Hours after the UK police decision, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, while speaking at a press conference in Islamabad, said he expressed concern to the British envoy over the acquittal of Altaf Hussain in the money laundering case as well as over the slow pace of progress on other cases against him.

Chaudhry Nisar linked the recent largest-ever recovery of weapons from a house near the MQM headquarters in Karachi’s Azizabad locality to a list of weapons seized by the Scotland Yard police from Altaf Hussain’s residence as part of the money laundering investigation against the Muttahida chief in London.

“There is some common factor in discovery of a huge cache of arms in Karachi and the list of weapons recovered from Altaf Hussain’s residence in London,” he added.

Sarfraz Merchant, one of the suspects in the money laundering case involving other MQM leaders, including its chief, had early this year accused Altaf Hussain of having links with Indian spy agency RAW and disclosed that a list of weapons had also been recovered from the Muttahida chief’s house by the Scotland Yard police.

Chaudhry Nisar said the list also mentioned prices of the weapons and it was apparently a ‘shopping list’. However, he said investigations were under way and he would not like to say anything more on it. Police and intelligence agencies were working on it, he added.

He said he had discussed all the cases against Mr Hussain with British High Commissioner Thomas Drew who called on him on Thursday. He said they had particularly discussed the case relating to incitement of violence in Pakistan for which a reference had been sent to the UK authorities.

Chaudhry Nisar said he had told the British high commissioner that the two countries enjoyed cordial relations which must not go to a dead-end because of an individual facing serious charges.

Online passport service

Meanwhile, the interior minister inaugurated an online passport renewal service for overseas Pakistanis.

The applicants will be able to file online applications for renewal of their passports, pay fees through credit cards and get passports delivered at their homes.

Chaudhry Nisar said such service for the people living in Pakistan would be introduced after six months.

He said the chip-based e-passport would be launched before June next year. In the first phase, he said, the facility would be restricted to official and diplomatic passports. He said the initial phase would cost Rs600 to 700 million.

Every district of the country would have a passport office by February next year, he added.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2016