KARACHI, February 27: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Monday ordered to place names of Mutahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Farooq Sattar, Amir Liaquat and Khalid Maqbool on Exit Control List (ECL) in a case pertaining to attack on media houses and provocative speeches by the party’s London-based chief Altaf Hussain. The accused were declared proclaimed offenders by the court last year.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the political party that dominates Pakistan’s largest city, faced one of the most serious crackdowns in its history in August last year after an inciting speech by its exiled leader in London led to a night of violence followed by the detention of senior party members and shutdown of its headquarters.
The authorities closed the MQM’s headquarters Nine Zero after supporters of the party ransacked two television stations in a rampage that left one person dead and eight injured.
The violence came after MQM’s leader in exile, Altaf Hussain, criticised Pakistan as a “cancer for the entire world” and the “epicentre of terrorism” in a speech broadcast over loudspeakers to a crowd in the city from his base in north London, where he has run the party since the early 1990s. -DNA
