Local court in Karachi on Wednesday extended bail of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader and nominated mayor Waseem Akhtar in two cases till January 18, while non-bailable arrest warrants for Farooq Sattar, Haidar Abbas Rizvi, Waseem Akhtar and others were issued under Loudspeaker Act. MQM leaders along with their lawyers arrived at Sindh High Court (SHC) to file a plea, seeking extension in protective bail. It was said in the petition that the cases against them are forged and registered only for political revenge.
It is pertinent to mention here that the nominated mayor of Karachi Waseem Akhtar was named in 27 cases for assisting MQM chief Altaf Hussain and Dr Asim Hussain. However, three cases were filed against Haidar Abbas Rizvi. Earlier, Anti-terrorism court (ATC) re-issued arrest warrants for twenty MQM leaders including Altaf Hussain, Farooq Sattar, Waseem Akhtar, Nasreen Jalil, Khush Bakht Shujaat, Rashid Godil, Khawaja Izhar, Qamar Mansoor and Rauf Siddique for listening and delivering a speech against the military establishment and national integrity.
MQM leaders and 200 unknown party workers were named in 23 FIRs in which the complainants alleged that the accused had attended a public gathering and facilitated the MQM chief in his speech against the security agencies on July 12, 2015. The MQM chief had accused the paramilitary Rangers of torturing and killing his party workers in ongoing targeted operation against criminals in the city. Recently, several cases were registered against him at different police stations under terrorism laws over a speech criticising the military establishment.