KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan on Friday expressed its concern over the arrest of a senior member of its coordination committee and urged the authorities to release him forthwith.

Syed Shahid Pasha was picked up on Thursday night near the Stadium Road when he was heading home from the party headquarters in Bahadurabad.

His driver informed his family and the MQM-P leadership that men in plain clothes intercepted their vehicle and asked Mr Pasha to accompany them. They also blindfolded him before taking him to an undisclosed location.

Mr Pasha had been arrested twice — first by paramilitary Rangers for 90 days in early 2016 and then again on Aug 22, 2016 after an incendiary speech of MQM founder Altaf Hussain and subsequent violence — and was released on bail a couple of months ago.

The MQM-P said in a brief statement that Mr Pasha was facing all cases and appearing in courts regularly. “He is a patriotic Pakistani and a responsible leader of the party. The coordination committee must be told if he has been nominated in any new case,” it added.

Mr Pasha was among some prominent MQM-P leaders who opposed the alliance with the Pak Sarzameen Party.

He was also very critical of the coordination committee of the MQM-P and had asked party head Dr Farooq Sattar to dissolve the supreme decision-making forum and hold intraparty polls to elect new office-bearers.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2017