A bombshell from Guardian

Will the MQM sue the newspaper or accept its charges on Altaf Hussain?

The write up by Owen Bennett-Jones in The Guardian about Altaf Hussain raises disquieting questions about the way he was given British citizenship, why no notice was taken for years of his provocative speeches delivered from London and why calls by Benazir Bhutto and Imran Khan to restrain him fell on deaf ears. The section of the write-up dealing with investigation into Imran Farooq’s murder will hopefully not be ignored by the PML-N government. The British police, we are told, has a clearer understanding now of a conspiracy to kill Imran Farooq. “Their investigation, however, is complicated by the fact that the MQM has supporters deep within the Pakistani state who want to protect it, and more cynical actors such as Pakistan’s main intelligence agency, the ISI, which want to control it.”

The most damaging part of the write-up deals with the presumed nexus between Altaf Hussain and the British government. Why did British government offer favours to Altaf like issuing a British passport? According to Bennett-Jones, British officials admit off the record that the process by which he obtained nationality was flawed. A decision in January 1999 to grant him indefinite leave to remain in the UK was made as a result of a “clerical error”. The writer links the grant of favour through “clerical error” to a letter written by Altaf Hussain soon after 9/11 to British Prime Minister Tony Blair offering his services and that of his party to bring hundreds of thousands of people on the streets of Karachi denouncing terrorism. Altaf Hussain also reportedly offered to organise human intelligence on the Taliban by setting up a network of fake aid workers in Afghanistan to back-up Western intelligence gathering efforts there. This is much more than the activity for which Dr Afridi was arrested and put behind the bars. Another highly injurious revelation is regarding the benefits provided to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) which protects British interests overseas by the MQM’s presence in coalition governments. “From the FCO’s point of view, it’s a great source of access. Right on their doorstep, in London, they have a man with ministers in the Pakistani government.”

Britain is a country with strict defamation laws that impose heavy punishments on the offender. It would be reasonable to assume that The Guardian must have verified the facts in the write-up before its publication. The MQM is likely to reject the contents of the article. The real test is whether it takes recourse to a British court or not. If the MQM does not sue The Guardian, to many it would amount to a confession of guilt. Any Pakistani political party desiring to make an alliance with the MQM would do well to advise the ethnic outfit to first get the charges cleared up.