LONDON: Veteran Mutta­­hida Qaumi Move­ment (MQM) leader Moham­mad Anwar passed away at a London hospital on Friday after a battle with cancer.

The news was confirmed by his relative, who posted to Twitter saying that 70-year-old Anwar “bravely battled a lethal cancer” and that he passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family.

He leaves behind his wife and three daughters.

Mr Anwar, a British citizen, lived in London and had been with the party since 1989. His association with MQM supremo Altaf Hussain spans more than two decades. It was he who received Mr Hussain in London when he arrived there 30 years ago and facilitated him in setting up what is now known as the MQM’s international secretariat.

Mr Anwar did not want to come into limelight and preferred to work behind the scenes from London. Even most MQM workers did not know how important he was for Mr Hussain as he never came to Pakistan during all this period.

Mr Anwar led the MQM side in negotiations with the country’s establishment in 2001-02 that led to a power-sharing arrangement under which Dr Ishratul Ibad was made governor of Sindh. Mr Hussain trusted Mr Anwar to an extent that he made Governor Ibad, all MQM ministers, lawmakers and local government representatives, including nazims, answerable to him.

In the last decade, Mr Anwar was accused of working for the Indian intelligence agency RAW on behalf of the MQM and some TV anchors alleged that he was not even a Pakistani national. Mr Anwar had denied all these allegations and, while presenting the proof of his Pakistani citizenship, said that he went to the UK from then East Pakistan before the fall of Dhaka.

Last year, an antiterrorism court in Islamabad had also declared him a proclaimed offender in connection with the assassination of Dr Imran Farooq in London in 2010.

But, like many others, he often faced the wrath of Mr Hussain who stripped him of his organisational responsibilities many a time.

In July 2015, he was removed from the membership of the party’s coordination committee for reportedly “being absent from crucial meetings” owing to his illness. A statement by the party at the time had said that Mr Anwar’s illness had affected his memory, and advised the workers not to establish contact with him on organisational matters.

His removal from the committee came two months after Mr Anwar was arrested and questioned by the London Metropolitan Police in connection with a money laundering case. He was released on bail the same day, and the case was dropped due to lack of evidence the following year.

The London police had said that all reasonable lines of inquiry were exhausted.

“A case file has been submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service for their careful consideration. Officers have now received their advice, taking into account all of the evidence identified during the course of the investigation, that 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,” the police report in October 2016 had said.

The police had found £167,525 in the MQM’s offices in London and a further £289,785 in Mr Hussain’s home. The MQM supremo was arrested in the case on June 3, 2014 by the London Metropolitan Police and released four days later.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2021