Altaf Hussain questioned again

LONDON: Altaf Hussain, the leader of one of Pakistan’s major political parties, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), who lives in exile in London, was questioned again on Tuesday over money-laundering allegations, his party said.
MQM said on its Twitter website Hussain had returned to a central London police station on Tuesday for a scheduled interview with detectives, and was released on police bail until July after further questioning.
The party denies involvement in money-laundering.
Hussain, who effectively controls Pakistan’s largest city Karachi from his north London home, was originally arrested by British police last June, leading to protests which led to a lockdown in Karachi, Pakistan’s commercial capital and home to 18 million people.
“I urge my millions of party members and supporters across the world to remain calm during this process. I have every faith in the British justice system,” Hussain said in a statement.
“I hope that this extension will allow the authorities to conclude their investigation as quickly as possible.”
London police said in a statement: “On Tuesday, 14 April a man aged 61 ... appeared on police bail and was further questioned in relation to money laundering offenses being investigated by officers from the MPS Counter Terrorism Command.”
Separately, Muazzam Ali, the alleged facilitator in the murder of former MQM leader Imran Farooq, was presented in an anti-terrorism court in Karachi on Tuesday where the judge remanded him into Rangers custody for 90 days.
Pakistan on Monday announced the arrest of Ali in connection with the 2010 murder of influential politician Imran Farooq in London, terming it a major breakthrough in the highly-charged case.
Farooq, 50, a founding member of the MQM, was stabbed and beaten to death in Edgware, northwest London, as he returned home from work in September 2010.
Critics of the MQM have claimed that the killing of Farooq was linked to an internal dispute in the party.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told reporters in Islamabad that intelligence agencies had toiled hard on the case for over a year before making their first arrest.
“Our security agencies and police have been trying to arrest a suspect in Imran Farooq’s murder for a year,” he said.
The suspect was arrested in Karachi, and is due to appear in court on Tuesday, Khan said.
“With the evidence we have, I am confident that there will be quick progress in this case now,” he said, adding that security agencies in Britain and Pakistan were cooperating in the investigation.
A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Ali was an immigration consultant accused of making travel arrangements for Farooq’s killers.
British police had made two arrests in connection with the killing but both suspects were later freed on bail. They believe that Farooq was under surveillance in the days and weeks before his murder.
Farooq claimed asylum in Britain in 1999. He was wanted in Pakistan over scores of charges including torture and murder related to the MQM’s activities, but always claimed the accusations were politically motivated.
He was twice elected an MP in Pakistan, but went into hiding in 1992 when the government ordered a military crackdown against party activists in Karachi.