MQM had not moved court against BBC in July 2013 also

Around two years ago in July 2013, the London-based British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) had raised several questions about the allegations of money-laundering against the MQM, the murder of Dr Imran Farooq, incitement of violence through hate speech and the Karachi-based political entity’s overall image of violence, but Altaf Hussain and his men had not filed a defamation case against the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees and the planet’s first regular high definition television service.
The BBC Two, in its July 2013 investigative report on the MQM during its programme “Newsnight,” had termed the party as one of the most feared parties in Pakistan. This particular programme was aired two months after the London Police had received a series of complaints from the Pakistan Tehreek-e Insaf activists, who had actually registered complaints against Altaf, who had threatened Imran Khan’s loyalists during the course of his speech.
The BBC Programme host Jeremy Paxman had raised a series of questions including if Britain was providing sanctuary to an organisation which threatens and persecutes others? Will Britain put Altaf Hussain on trial? And why does the British government keep doors open for the MQM?
In the July 2013 BBC report, its reporter Owen Bennett Jones had showed Altaf’s house where the Scotland Yard had conducted a raid in June 2013 and had seized hundreds of thousands of British pounds.
The BBC show had also carried interviews of eyewitnesses and had commented on threatening speeches by Altaf Hussain, including the one in which he had accused the UK government of hatching conspiracies against his political entity.
The BBC host Paxman had literally rendered MQM leader Farooq Sattar speechless after posing a pinching query as to how much money was seized, the purpose of keeping that kind of cash and the purpose behind keeping so much liquid money at a residential apartment.
Two years down the road in June 2015, It is extremely puzzling that despite being accused of high treason, the MQM has again failed to give any indication if it would move court against the BBC, which has otherwise been successfully sued many times in recent past by aggrieved and disgruntled plaintiffs, who have succeeded in winning libel damages from this internationally respected media outlet.
In May 2009, the BBC had lost a legal battle against Gianfranco Zola, the manager of the West Ham Football Club and his assistant Steve Clarke. The football club officials had accepted undisclosed libel damages from the BBC over a report that they were planning to move to another team, Chelsea.
In November 2012, famous BBC programme “The Newsnight” had accused Lord McAlpine, a leading Tory politician of the Thatcher era, of being involved in sexual abuse in children’s homes in North Wales in the 1970s and 1980s.
Although the politician was not mentioned by name, this individual being referred to was certainly Lord McAlpine. He was identified before transmission on social network Twitter and was foreseeably identified afterwards by large numbers of people.
The report proved wrong - as the BBC had reportedly admitted on November 10, 2012. It had consequently issued an unreserved apology. The BBC had agreed to pay Lord McAlpine an amount of £185,000 (€215,000) over the story.
According to the “Irish Times,” the BBC had apologised, but before the broadcaster could retract the story, Lord McAlpine was the subject of thousands of tweets linking him to the scandal.
In December 2009, the BBC had lost yet another libel battle with an oil trading company Messrs Trafigura. After negotiations with a Trafigura company Director Eric de Turckheim, the BBC had agreed to apologise for a “Newsnight” programme, pay £25,000 to charity, and withdraw any allegation that Trafigura’s toxic waste dumped in Africa had caused deaths.
But at the same time, the BBC issued a combative statement, pointing out that the dumping of Trafigura’s hazardous waste had led to the British-based oil trader being forced to pay out £30 million in compensation to victims.”
“The Guardian” had also published BBC’s statement in this context. The broadcaster’s statement had read: “The BBC has played a leading role in bringing to the public attention the actions of Trafigura in the illegal dumping of 500 tons of hazardous waste” the statement said. “The dumping caused a public health emergency with tens of thousands of people seeking treatment.”
The BBC had stated: “Experts in the compensation case were not able to establish a link between the waste and serious long-term consequences, including deaths.”