Under 7 ATA and 506 PPC, Rangers spokesman Col Tahir Mehmood files FIR against Altaf Hussain at Civil Lines Police Station for threatening Rangers
The paramilitary forces on Tuesday registered a case against Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain under the Anti-Terrorism Act for threatening the Rangers personnel and issuing insulting remarks about them.
Filed by Rangers’ spokesperson Col Tahir Mehmood, the case registered under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act and 506 of the Pakistan Penal Code could carry life imprisonment or harsh punishment.
Police sources said that the FIR was registered at 9:50pm last night, adding this was unprecedented as no case has ever been registered based on statements made on a TV show.
According to police, SSP Investigation Faizullah Korijo has been appointed as the chief of the investigation team to probe the matter.
Referring to Rangers “as a thing of the past”, Hussain had used threatening language against the security forces in a telephonic interview with a private TV channel last week after the Rangers raided the MQM’s headquarters, arrested some suspects and recovered arms.
The FIR said Hussain had directly threatened members of the paramilitary force who were involved in the operation. Hussain had also claimed that personnel of the paramilitary force brought the weapons and ammunition ‘wrapped in blankets’ with them and then claimed the recovery to frame the party.
The MQM chief had said that the Establishment had never accepted him and for that he could step down from active politics to look after the party’s welfare wing.
MQM AT CIVIL LINES:
A few hours after the registration of case, MQM members Muhammad Hussain and Kamran Farooqi rushed to Civil Lines Police Station on Tuesday to get a copy of the FIR lodged against their party’s chief Altaf Hussain.
“No officer is present in the police station. We are now going back,” Hussain was quoted by media as saying. “We came here to get a copy of the FIR,” he added.
Meanwhile, talking to media persons, party leader Khalid Siddiqui has said that registering cases on party leader will not affect Hussain’s moral. He said that Hussain had faced such allegations in the past as well and scores of cases had been registered against him.
The MQM party workers, he said, will not falter under such pressure. He said that an attempt is being made to connect the party with acts of terrorism and if such attempts succeeded the country would fall into unrest and terrorists would succeed in their endeavours.
THE SECTIONS READ:
Section 7.1 of the ATC reads: “A person commits an offence if he- (a) directs, at any level, whilst resident in Pakistan or abroad, activities of an organization concerned with the preparation, instigation or commission of acts of terrorism; or (b) directs, from within the country or abroad, activities connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism.”
7.2 Section 11-W of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 reads: “Printing, publishing or disseminating any material to incite hatred or giving projection to any person convicted for a terrorist act or any proscribed organization or an organization placed under observation or anyone concerned in terrorism.- (1) A person commits an offence if he prints, publishes or disseminates any material, whether by audio or video-cassettes or by written, photographic, electronic, digital, wall-chalking or any other method which incites religious, sectarian or ethnic hatred or gives projection to any person convicted for a terrorist act, or any person or organization concerned in terrorism or proscribed organization or an organization placed under observation:
Provided that a factual news report made in good faith, shall not be construed to mean “projection” for the purposes of this section.
(2) Any person guilty of an offence under sub-section (1) shall be punished on conviction with imprisonment which may extend to five years and with fine.”
Section 506 of the Pakistan Penal Code states: “Punishment for criminal intimidation: Whoever commences the offence of criminal intimidation shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years or with fine or with both. If threat be to cause death or grievous hurt, etc:
And if the threat be to cause death or grievous hurt, or to cause the destruction of any property by fire, or to cause an offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years, or to impute unchastity to a woman, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, or with fine, or with both.”
This is the first case against the MQM chief after all cases against him were quashed under National Reconciliation Order (NRO).