KARACHI: Three leaders of the Altaf Hussain-led Muttahida Qaumi Movement, who were taken into custody in front of the Karachi Press Club by the Rangers on Saturday, have been detained for 30 days in the Karachi central prison under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, officials said on Sunday.
The paramilitary troops took into custody Prof Dr Hasan Zafar Arif, former MNA Kunwar Khalid Yunus and Amjadullah Khan — three of the nine Karachi-based members of the recently announced coordination committee of the MQM-London — after they reached the press club to hold a press conference.
A police spokesperson confirmed their 30-day detention under the MPO and said they had been sent to the Karachi central prison.
The Sindh home department issued separate notifications regarding their detention under the MPO late on Saturday night.
The Karachi commissioner forwarded a report of the DIG-South to the home department that the police apprehended a law and order situation if MQM-London leaders were allowed to assemble at the club.
The home department order said that the commissioner requested the preventive detention of Dr Hasan Zafar Arif, Kunwar Khalid Yunus and Amjadullah Khan under the MPO for one month.
It said that on Aug 22, the “supporters of the MQM (A) during telephonic address of Altaf Hussain outside Karachi Press Club chanted slogans against Pakistan and attacked a private TV channel”.
“Today i.e. Oct. 22, Dr Hassan Zafar along with other leaders of the MQM (A) London Committee again started gathering outside the KPC to address a press conference.”
The order said that the police believed that their activities were prejudicial to the public peace and order.
Expressing satisfaction over the reports of the commissioner and the DIG-South, home secretary Shakeel Mangnejo in exercise of his powers under Section 3 (1) of the West Pakistan Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance 1960 ordered detention of the three leaders for 30 days with immediate effect.
He also ordered that the trio be confined to the Karachi central prison.
SBC slams raid on MQM leader’s home
The Sindh Bar Council on Sunday strongly criticised the raids by Rangers at the house of Advocate Muhammad Ishaque, better known as Sathi Ishaque, a member of the coordination committee of the MQM-London.
In a statement issued here, SBC vice chairman Barrister Salahuddin Ahmed condemned the raid at the home of Advocate Ishaque, also a former chairman of the Drug Tribunal, by the paramilitary troops and their subsequent misbehaviour with the lawyer’s family.
“Mr Sathi Ishaq is a well-know layer and such raids are nothing more than an attempt to punish him for belonging to a faction of a political party which is out of favour with the establishment,” he stated.
He said it was not against the law to belong to a political party and this kind of “victimisation and oppressive conduct” was not only unconstitutional but shall also cause law enforcement agencies to lose their credibility and popular support in their actions against “real criminals”.
Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2016
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