Pakistan to lodge money-laundering case against Altaf: sources

ISLAMABAD: The government of Pakistan has decided to lodge a case against Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) self-exiled chief Altaf Hussain after the British authorities found a huge amount of cash from his London residence last year.

Highly-placed sources in Pakistan’s interior ministry told Geo News on Thursday that the government has finally taken a decision to lodge a money laundering case against Hussain.

The decision was taken on the basis of recovery of huge sum of cash from the MQM chief’s residence in London’s Edgware neighbourhood, they added.

Altaf Hussain has been questioned by the British investigators on multiple occasions in suspicion of money laundering. Last time his bail was extended in the case in April earlier this year.

The case in Pakistan is likely to be lodged by either Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) counter-terrorism wing or its Karachi Zone, sources said today.

They further said that the government has sought details of the money laundering case from Britain. The case in Pakistan would be lodged in the light of British evidences, they added.

The procedure of sending money from Karachi to the United Kingdom would also be reviewed in this regard, added the sources.

The 60-year-old MQM chief gained British citizenship in 2002 after leaving Pakistan during a controversial military operation in Karachi in 1992.