British police have charged a Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain with encouraging terrorism, Scotland Yard announced on Thursday, after a speech he made in 2016 to supporters in Karachi was followed by violent protests. Altaf Hussain, faces up to seven years imprisonment for the speech which was "likely to be understood" as encouraging supporters to acts of terrorism, or was "reckless" of the possible consequences.

Hussain, 66, has lived in London for more than two decades and often addressed supporters in the South Asian megacity through a loudspeaker linked to his home telephone. In the speech on August 22, 2016, he castigated the media for not giving due coverage to his workers. Police accused him of chanting anti-Pakistani slogans, and security forces moved in to seal his party headquarters.

MQM activists clashed with police and ransacked a private television station in violence which left at least one man dead and seven others injured. Hussain's party "completely disowned" him after the statements. The MQM lost its hold on Karachi during 2018's general election.

Hussain still publishes periodic messages denigrating the Pakistani establishment on social media, though as his grip on power has diminished his audience has shrunk dramatically from their peak during his charismatic speeches of the 1980s and 1990s. He was due to appear in a magistrates court in London on Thursday.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019