Arrest of exiled Pakistani politician could spark chaos

Altaf Hussain, who has lived in self-imposed exile in London since 1992, was arrested on money-laundering charges, sparking fears that there could be a bloody power struggle within his party and violence in the streets of Karachi.

A Pakistani youth wheels his bicycle past a burning vehicle on a street in Karachi on Tuesday following the arrest of Altaf Hussain, head of Pakistan's Muttahida Qaumi Movement party, in London. Asif Hassan / AFPShow less

NEW YORK // The arrest on Tuesday of the leader of Karachi’s most powerful and feared political party paralysed the city and stoked fears that the move may spark a violent backlash and even a bloody power struggle within the party.

Altaf Hussain, the leader of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) who has lived in self-imposed exile in London since 1992, was arrested on money-laundering charges.

While the British authorities did not name Mr Hussain, the Metropolitan Police told reporters that a 60-year-old man had been detained on Tuesday morning at a home in north-west London, and an MQM official confirmed the arrest. Special operations officers were also searching the property, Reuters reported.

From his London home, Mr Hussain has maintained a tight grip on his party, which claims to represent the single largest ethnic group in the port city of 18 million, Urdu-speakers who originally migrated from India after Partition.

Mr Hussain regularly gives dramatic addresses to crowds of thousands of his rapt supporters by phone, and the MQM is capable of enforcing citywide shutdowns on short notice.

The MQM, which has little support outside of its urban, middle-class bases in Sindh province, has also been accused of criminal violence, and its armed workers have engaged in bouts of tit-for-tat ethnic violence over the past decade as migrants from Pakistan’s other major ethnic groups have flooded into the country’s economic hub and asserted growing political clout.

Within minutes of the news of his arrest, the city was gripped with panic, as businesses closed early and workers rushed home. Though people sporadically fired guns in the air and torched buses , there was much less violence and chaos than many had expected.

“I saw five or six buses burning in Gulistan e Johar and Gulshan and everything is closed,” said Nasib Khan, who works at a car rental business, describing MQM-dominated neighbourhoods. “The [MQM] unit men came and told all the businesses on our street to pull down their shutters.”

Main thoroughfares across the city were clogged for hours with traffic, and markets quickly sold out of staple goods before closing.

By the evening, around 4,000 MQM supporters had gathered for a protest on one of the city’s main boulevards, MA Jinnah Road, to protest Mr Hussain’s arrest. “Everyone should come to endorse his or her love and solidarity to Altaf Hussain,” said Haider Abbas Rizvi, a party leader, who added that the sit-in would continue until Mr Hussain was released.

The British diplomatic mission in Karachi said it was temporarily closing, and the US embassy in Islamabad warned American citizens of the possibility of violence in the city.

Mr Hussain has come under increasing pressure by the British authorities since the 2010 murder of a senior party official and close ally in London, Imran Farooq, who was stabbed near Mr Hussain’s office.

That investigation had begun to tighten around Mr Hussain in recent months and there has been increasing pressure by British authorities on their Pakistani counterparts to turn over two of the murder suspects who are thought to be in the custody of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI.

Scotland Yard released the names and photos of the men last week, but without the suspects in hand, there are limited prospects of pursuing the murder charge.

The murder investigation led to three other investigations of Mr Hussain and the MQM in London, for tax evasion, money-laundering and inciting violence in Karachi during a televised address to supporters.

The MQM describes itself as an avowedly secular party, and has taken a strong pro-West and anti-Taliban stance, leading them to be widely seen as close to Washington and London, and Mr Hussain’s political opponents have accused British authorities of stalling in their criminal investigations.

"The British have for a long time been in a rather awkward position and were coming under pressure," said Talat Aslam, a senior editor in Karachi with The News.

The MQM has also been coming under unprecedented pressure in its stronghold, with new political parties competing for its voters and an inexorable demographic shift as millions of Pashtuns from the north-west as well as Sindhis and Baloch migrate to the city in search of jobs.

“The party is extremely vulnerable now, extremely susceptible to factionalisation and to losing its political grip on the city,” said Badar Alam, editor of The Herald magazine. “The moment Altaf left Pakistan in ’92, another faction emerged” and led to staggering internecine violence … “and that was when the Mohajir vote was still very consolidated”.

The MQM has been tightly controlled by Mr Hussain, with no known successor, and fissures between hardliners and younger leaders who want to further mainstream the party may erupt if Mr Hussain is jailed.

“It has all been held together because of Altaf Hussain, that papered over it, but without him around I really don’t know, things might get messy,” Mr Aslam said. “Everyone is bracing themselves.”

* Additional reporting by Reuters and Agence France-Press