KARACHI: An antiterrorism court acquitted on Tuesday seven leaders of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in cases pertaining to facilitating and listening to the alleged hate speech of London-based party founder Altaf Hussain.

Senior leaders including Dr Farooq Sattar, former Karachi mayor Wasim Akhtar, Rauf Siddiqui, Khawaja Izharul Hasan, Salman Mujahid, Qamar Mansoor, Rehan Hashmi along with nearly 200 unidentified workers were charged with facilitating and listening to Mr Hussain’s speech criticising the security establishment on July 12, 2015.

A total of 23 identical cases were registered at different police stations across the city.

On Tuesday, the ATC-I judge pronounced his verdict reserved on the acquittal applications of the seven MQM leaders in 21 cases clubbed together for joint trial due to the fact that they were identical in nature.

The judge allowed the applications filed individually by the seven leaders under Section 265-K of the criminal procedure code seeking their acquittal in the cases due to lack of evidence.

Earlier, the investigating officers in two cases had already filed charge sheets under A-class declaring the suspects as ‘unknown’ or ‘untraceable’.

The court had already declared the MQM founder as proclaimed offender in the cases, which have been kept dormant until his arrest or surrender.

The defence counsel said the IOs neither showed arrest nor charge-sheeted any of the 200 unidentified suspects booked in present cases except the seven MQM leaders.

In the acquittal pleas, defence counsel Shaukat Hayat and Irshad Bandhani argued that there was no evidence to connect the MQM leaders with the commissioning of the offences of provocation since the alleged speech was delivered by Mr Hussain from London.

They further argued that the complaint of a case filed under any serious allegation like waging war against the state, sedition or conspiring against the state must be filed by the federal or provincial government, but no such mandatory legal formality was fulfilled in the present cases.

Therefore, the court could neither take cognizance nor conduct trial in a case in which such a mandatory legal requirement had not been fulfilled, the counsel added.

They further argued that no offence such as waging war against the state had been established by the prosecution against their clients through the evidence so far.

The court was also told that the seven nominated MQM leaders, who had filed acquittal applications, had already distanced themselves from Mr Hussain.

Concluding their arguments, the defence counsel pleaded to the court to allow the applications and acquit their clients of the alleged false and fabricated charges of the prosecution.

On the other hand, the state prosecutor submitted that there was sufficient evidence to connect the applicants with the commissioning of the offence alleged by the prosecution and pleaded to dismiss the acquittal applications for lacking merit.

According to the prosecution, the nominated MQM leaders and workers had allegedly facilitated and listened to the highly provocative speech of Mr Hussain against the country’s security establishment.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2021