KARACHI: Rangers summoned Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader and former Gulshan-i-Iqbal town nazim Wasay Jalil to their office on Thursday and questioned him over several matters.

While the paramilitary force refused to comment on the development, a spokesman for the MQM confirmed to Dawn that Mr Jalil, who recently returned from London, “met Rangers officials who asked him certain questions”.

He said the Rangers allowed Mr Jalil to leave after a couple of hours and he later reached the MQM’s Nine Zero headquarters.

The MQM spokesman refused to share details of the questions asked. He insisted that it was a “meeting” — and not an “investigation” — as he was not an accused in any case.

Sources in the paramilitary force told Dawn that Mr Jalil was quizzed about the issues the Rangers needed information on, particularly about certain suspects arrested recently in the ongoing Karachi operation.

Mr Jalil had become the nazim of now defunct Gulshan-i-Iqbal town in the 2005 party-less local government elections from the MQM-backed Haqparast Panel. After the tenure of LG institutions ended, he became a member of the MQM coordination committee and oversaw party matters relating to the media.

He had left Karachi for London a couple of months ago. After his return to the metropolis, he filed nomination papers to contest local government elections scheduled for Feb 8 on a seat reserved for labourers in Karachi East district.

Although the MQM has not announced its candidates for the slot of chairmen and vice chairmen of district municipal corporations, Mr Jalil is being tipped as its candidate for the office of DMC-East chairman.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2016