Pakistan's opposition leader Imran Khan has hired one of Britain's top lawyers as he mounts a legal campaign against the London-based Muttahida Quami Movement supremo Altaf Hussain whom he accuses of orchestrating the carnage on May 12 in Karachi that claimed 48 lives, and injured hundreds of others.
The case has four specific charges — terrorist activities leading to the May 12 events in Karachi, incitement to violence, money laundering and torture. "Why now? Why me? The minute I saw ten of my party workers, innocent, unarmed, being gunned down in cold blood, in broad daylight, I decided that was it. Enough is enough. This man, who is an ally of General Musharraf commits a blatant act of terrorism, with the connivance of the government and he gets away with it," said the opposition leader speaking to Gulf News soon after he arrived in London to a storm of calumny from the MQM over the cricketer turned politician's racy past. "There's no way I can sit back and allow my country to be blackmailed by a man who does not even believe in the creation of Pakistan."
Asked about proof, he said, "you want proof, then ask yourself this: 48 people die, 200 are injured and there is no government inquiry". He says that on May 11, he and other opposition leaders warned the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Quadi against allowing the MQM to hold a rally in Karachi on the day suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was due to address the Sindh Bar Association. Chaudhry's ouster on March 9 set off a storm of protests among the legal fraternity which has snowballed into a campaign against the military-led government of President Pervez Musharraf.
"On the night of May 11, the MQM which runs the Sindh government declared an emergency at all Karachi hospitals. How did they know there would be bloodshed unless they were planning it? The Chief Justice travelled the length and breadth of the country, addressed countless rallies. Not a single drop of blood was shed."
Khan has hired namesake and London-based solicitor Imran Khan to fight the case against Hussain, which will be buttressed by "facts" from former Interior Minister Nasrullah Babar.
"Don't take my word for it. Ask Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International or UN Human Rights Commission about his tactics," said Khan, chief of the Tehreek-i-Insaf, or movement for justice, which has grown steadily closer to ousted premier Nawaz Sharif.
The MQM's bid to derail the cricketer-turned-politician is a measure of the party's nervousness that Khan could succeed in his campaign to oust Hussain from London where he has lived for 15 years. Khan says he chose to launch his battle in the UK because "at least here witnesses do not disappear".
"There's rule of law, there's justice," he said. "In Pakistan, as you can see we have neither."
