KARACHI: An Anti-Terrorism Court has fixed April 24 for arguments of the state prosecutor on applications filed by four Muttahida Qaumi Movement leaders seeking acquittal in nearly two dozen cases pertaining to facilitating and listening to hate speech of their London-based party founder Altaf Hussain.

Senior MQM leaders, including Dr Farooq Sattar, former Karachi mayor Wasim Akhtar, Amir Khan, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Rauf Siddiqui, Rashid Godil, Khawaja Izharul Hasan, Gul Faraz Khattak, Salman Mujahid, Abdul Qadir Khanzada, Khushbakht Shuja’at, Shahid Pasha, Qamar Mansoor and Kanwar Naveed along with nearly

200 party workers were booked in the hate speech case on July 12, 2015. On Saturday, four MQM leaders filed their acquittal applications in the ATC-I, which is conducting a joint trial in the identical cases clubbed together.

The defence counsel, Shaukat Hayat, argued that there was no evidence to connect his clients — Dr Farooq Sattar, Wasim Akhtar, Rauf Siddiqui and Khawaja Izharul Hasan — with the commissioning of the offence of provocation, since the alleged speech was delivered by their leader Altaf Hussain from London.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2021