PESHAWAR, Dec 18: The court of additional district and sessions judge, Peshawar, here on Wednesday issued perpetual arrest warrants of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s chief, Altaf Hussain, and six other accused in a case of arms smuggling.

The court, presided over by Sardar Muhammad Irshad, acquitted the lone accused facing trial in the case, Gulistan Khan. The remaining seven accused never turned up before the court and have been absconding.

Altaf Hussain and the other six accused had earlier been declared proclaimed offenders in the same case.

The case was registered during the government of Pakistan People’s Party on May 29, 1995, when arms and ammunition were recovered by the Crimes Investigation Department (CID) here from a residence. The government at that time claimed that the accused were smuggling the arms to Karachi in order to use them for committing terrorism.

Three of the accused — Muhammad Arif Qureshi and Farrukh Rasheed, both belonging to Karachi, and Mukhtiar Ahmad of Kakshal, Peshawar — were arrested from the spot.

The recovered arms included four klashnakovs, one rocket launcher, 100 rockets, 100 hand-grenades and 800 cartridges.

Later on, a senator of MQM, Zahid Akhter, son of Ruknuddin, was arrested in Karachi and handed over to the CID in the same case.

Two of the accused also confessed to their guilt, stating that they had instructions from their leaders to smuggle arms to Karachi so as to use them against the rival groups.

It may be mentioned that after senator Zahid announced support to the PPP government the charges against him were withdrawn.

In the same case, the investigation agency also charged another MQM leader, Syed Asghar Kazmi, an arms dealer of Dara Adamkhel, Haji Ameer, Gulistan Khan, and Sardar.

The three accused arrested earlier were later on granted bail. Except for Gulistan, all the remaining accused had been absconding and not appearing before the court.

The trial court issued summons to the accused a number of times, but they did not turn up.

Counsel for Gulistan Khan argued that he was falsely implicated in the case. He added that the defendant had got nothing to do with the arms seized by the CID. He contended that the case was concocted.