KARACHI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan used strong words against Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Altaf Hussain, saying that his party has a team of lawyers in London ready to press charges against Hussain if any PTI member is harmed during the NA-246 election campaign.

In three tweets posted Saturday, the PTI chief called Hussain out by asserting that he "first terrorise[s] the hapless citizens of the city and then play[s] the victim".

Khan added that he "cannot forget" what the family of a murdered MQM leader told him in 2007.

The PTI leader — who addressed the MQM chief as "Adolf Altaf" in an apparent reference to Hitler — went on to say that a team of lawyers is ready to press charges against Hussain if PTI members are mistreated in the NA-246 election campaign.

However, Wasay Jalil of the MQM Coordination Committee dismissed Khan's statements by saying: "PTI is just seeking media attention in NA-246 By-Election Campaign & we have seen such hasty statements from him before without basis".

Also read: PTI, MQM workers clash again

Khan's statement comes ahead of a forthcoming by-election in Karachi's NA-246, an MQM bastion which was left vacant after the resignation from the National Assembly of MQM leader Nabeel Gabol.

Just two days after having agreed to a code of conduct for the by-election, workers of MQM and PTI clashed in one of the constituency areas on Friday evening. The situation turned violent and tense when an election camp of one party was uprooted by workers of the other after hours-long face-off between the two sides.

“Police have detained 10 people following the clash,” Karachi West DIG Feroz Shah said. He claimed that no one was injured during the clash. “Tension arose when some people gathered at the camp office, but the situation was brought under control in the night,” he added.

Putting the blame on Altaf

Imran Ismail while holding a press conference said that Altaf Hussain will directly be held responsible if any harm was inflicted upon the PTI workers.

“It is sheer vandalism,” said PTI leader Imran Ismail, who is also the party’s candidate for NA-246. “It’s typical, traditional politics of fear and violence. We are surprised that no one from the administration or law-enforcement agency intervened when MQM workers were pelting our workers with stones and vandalising our election camp. This is the reason which forced us to demand polling under Rangers,” he said.

The MQM’s candidate for the NA seat, Kanwar Naveed Jamil, denied the allegations and said it was not a clash between the political workers. He said his party had set up the PTI camp office when it was vandalised and after receiving information about the incident, his party immediately contacted Imran Ismail.

Earlier this week, MQM and PTI workers clashed in Azizabad when Imran Ismail visited the MQM bastion to meet workers and play a game of cricket.