Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government is keeping itself aloof in relation to Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain's case. Sources within the ruling PML-N told Business Recorder that the government does not want to become a party to the ongoing probe against MQM chief as it is a matter of the UK government probing its own citizen.
"This is a non-issue for us [government]...we think he [Altaf Hussain] is a British national. On these grounds, it is purely an issue to be dealt with by the British government against her own citizen," argued a senior PML-N leader while talking to this scribe requesting not to be named.
The political parties of the country including the ruling PML-N that has been critical of MQM in the past was silent on the ongoing development especially with respect to Sunday's speech of Altaf Hussain. It was learnt from the background discussion with various politicians of different political parties that the political parties are adopting a 'wait and see' policy. "It is now an established fact that one British national is under interrogation in murder of another British citizen...and we are not party to it," said a senior PML-N leader while referring to the ongoing probe into Imran Farooq murder case.
When asked whether Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took up the matter with his British counterpart who concluded his visit on Sunday, the PML-N leader queried why would the Pakistan government intervene in a case of a foreign national. Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI), had blamed MQM's leadership for killing of its Karachi chapter senior leader Zahra Shahid, an incident that took place after Altaf Hussain's 'teen talwar' speech soon after the May 11 general elections, took notice of Altaf Hussain's speech. PTI's central information secretary Dr Shireen Mazari however stated that "This is an internal matter of the UK involving a crime that took place in the UK of a UK resident and Hussain is also a British citizen".
When contacted a spokesperson to British High Commission in Islamabad, Helen Chorlton said: "The Metropolitan Police and its investigation into the murder of Dr Imran Farooq is independent of the British government... We are independent from the Metropolitan Police and the government is not investigating him [Altaf Hussain]."
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