ISLAMABAD/KARACHI: Over two dozen properties owned by the Khidmat-i-Khalq Foundation (KKF) of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) have been confiscated in Karachi by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Dawn has learnt.

FIA officials said 29 properties worth Rs3.6 billion and located in the upscale and business areas of Karachi had been purchased with the money allegedly collected through ‘extortion’.

These properties were purch­ased in the name of the KKF, by the MQM, and later were rented out to earn money, the officials said.

Party condemns FIA move as ‘biased, illogical’

The money collected through rent was spent on the families of the MQM’s “martyrs” and workers detained by law enforcers, the officials said, adding that a hefty part of the amount was sent to England where the party’s supremo had been residing for the last three decades.

Transactions of the money earned through the properties were made by using fake names and funds were sent to England though six facilitators, including a former MNA and a former senator of the MQM, they said.

“The FIA has taken possession of the properties and is looking after their financial affairs,” the officials said, adding that the properties were still in the use of the tenants with whom the KKF had made agreements.

Financial assistance given to the families of the party’s detained and slain activists had not been stopped, they said.

These properties were spotted during the investigation of a money laundering case registered by the FIA in 2017 against Altaf Hussain and others, including some MQM leaders, they said.

According to the officials, the KKF was established by the MQM in the late 80s and several activities, including purchase of properties and renting them out, were conducted in the name of the foundation to generate money for welfare of the people, but a large part of the amount collected through the activities was spent on other purposes.

The investigators are also probing other affairs of the KKF, including checking and verifying if it owned more property, the officials said.

Hundreds of people who donated money to the KKF had been marked as suspects and legal action, including interrogation, initiated against them, the FIA officials said

Besides, the funds collected by the KKF since its creation were also being investigated to ascertain the purposes on which the money was spent.

When contacted, Director of the FIA Counter Terrorism Wing Mazhar Kakakhail confirmed that 29 properties of the KKF had been confiscated by the FIA in connection with the money laundering case.

Meanwhile, the MQM-Pakistan has strongly reacted to the FIA’s move and called it a “biased decision” to target the “charity arm of the party which is serving the poor and unprivileged classes of society”.

“The services of the KKF for poor people of the country over the past many years are secret to no one,” the party said in a statement issued in Karachi.

“The FIA’s decision to seize all properties of the foundation — including hospitals, blood banks, educational institutions and relief centres worth billion of rupees — only for an intentional or unintentional mistake of an individual or two is beyond any logic,” the statement said

The MQM-P said it was consulting the federal government and also its legal team to find out a solution to the situation.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2019