Govt wants to crush MQM through ATCs: Altaf

LONDON: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussein -- commenting on the death sentence awarded to MQM activists in the Union Texas employees' murder case -- said that the punishments to his party workers had made clear the very objective behind the establishment of the anti-terrorism courts (ATCs).

In an interview to BBC on Sunday, he said: "Punishment means the government wants to crush innocent MQM workers by implicating them in false cases and demoralise them through such punishments."

Altaf said that he came to know through the BBC report that he had also been involved in this (Union Texas) case. The FBI team and other American intelligence agencies, he added, had come to Pakistan and interrogated Ahmed Saeed, Muhammad Saleem and all other accused, falsely implicated in the case. These investigating agencies, he claimed, had cleared all of them from the said case.

"Had they been involved, the reward announced by the US would have been paid to the police and other authorities, and the US government would have demanded of Pakistan authorities to hand the accused over to Washington so that further investigations could be held there," he maintained.

"I don't know whether or not my name was given to them but I, on my own, am ready to present myself to the court, where there are impartial judges, whether it is a Pakistani court or of international community," the MQM chief said. He said that if courts remained under the influence of the government, no body would be prepared to appear before such courts. "That is why Benazir Bhutto is also not returning home because she doesn't expect justice from these courts," he observed.