LAHORE: A full bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday declined to accept the Interior Ministry’s report on action against the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) head in London for making statements against Pakistan and initiating high treason proceedings against him.
The bench – consisting of Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Mazhar Iqbal Sidhu and Justice Erum Sajad Gull – directed the interior secretary to submit a detailed report by December 7 on petitions moved by advocates Muhammad Azhar Siddique, Sardar Aftab Virk and others.
On Monday, Interior Secretary Arif Khan appeared along with the federal government’s law officers and submitted a report. He also said that Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was in the UK and had taken up the matter of Altaf Hussain with the authorities there.
The bench remarked that the matter was related to Pakistan and not the UK. It observed that Altaf Hussain was involved in a heinous offence of speaking against Pakistan, and the court would not allow anyone to speak against the country, which was created after a long struggle.
The bench observed that the court should be informed as to what action had been taken against such a person.
The petitioners had sought cancellation of MQM’s registration as a political party and action against Altaf Hussain under treason charges. They claimed that Altaf Hussain was a British national and no foreign citizen could become head of a political party in Pakistan under the Political Parties Order 2002. Petitioners asserted that the recent speech of Altaf established that the MQM was more of a terrorist outfit than a political party, and that there should be a complete ban on it.
They said the government had the authority to cancel the registration of any political party. They said that an application was moved in this regard but the federal government did not bother taking action on it.
They also requested the court to initiate proceedings under Article 6 of the constitution against the MQM chief and to disqualify his party’s parliamentarians.
