LONDON - The British police arrested Altaf Hussain, the leader of a powerful Pakistani political party, on suspicion of money laundering on Tuesday, causing a panicked reaction in Karachi, where businesses closed and residents rushed home fearing possible political violence.
Mr. Hussain was arrested at his home in Edgware in northwest London early Tuesday, said Muhammad Anwar, a senior London-based official with his party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, or M.Q.M.
'The police have produced a warrant and are searching the house. They are suggesting that they would interview him,' Mr. Anwar said. A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police declined to name Mr. Hussain but confirmed that a 60-year-old man had been arrested.
News of the arrest spread rapidly in Karachi, the capital of Sindh Province and a city of 20 million that Mr. Hussain's party has dominated for nearly three decades through a combination of electoral politics and street violence.
Shops closed immediately, and tens of thousands of people rushed toward home, causing long traffic jams on several major streets. The Karachi Stock Exchange initially dropped 780 points - just over 2 percent of its value - although it later recovered somewhat. Pakistani television news channels reported sporadic gunfire in parts of Karachi and Hyderabad, another large city in Sindh where the M.Q.M. enjoys strong support. The stations reported that at least six vehicles were burned by M.Q.M. protesters.
'There's an environment of fear and uncertainty,' said Ismail Lalpuria, general secretary of the Sindh Traders' Association.
The British diplomatic mission in Karachi said it was closing temporarily, while senior Karachi police officials held an emergency meeting to discuss the security situation.
'There is a visible state of panic,' Inspector Atiq Ahmed Sheikh, a police spokesman, said in reference to the chaotic scenes on the roads. 'I've also seen reports of gunfire, but no serious incident has been reported as yet.'
In London, senior officials said the police had not removed Mr. Hussain from his house because of his ill health. 'He's not in a fit condition,' said Mr. Anwar. 'He was due to be admitted to hospital this morning.'
'His lawyers and his doctor are in communication with the police,' he added. 'The negotiation is still going on.'
Mr. Hussain's arrest is likely to test the internal unity of the M.Q.M., which represents ethnic Mohajirs, who make up a sizable proportion of the Karachi population. Pakistani news reports said that the party leadership was to hold an emergency meeting later on Tuesday to discuss the crisis.
The M.Q.M. controls most of the parliamentary seats for Karachi, and has been a part of several coalition governments. But it also exercises influence through a network of heavily armed street gangs that operate in some neighborhoods that it controls.
The party is dominated by Mr. Hussain, a charismatic figure who summons his party subordinates to meetings in London and addresses giant street rallies in Karachi, often with tens of thousands of supporters, by telephone.
Mr. Hussain has not returned to Pakistan since he established himself in London in 1992. He obtained a British passport in 2002. But in recent weeks, he has been requesting a Pakistani passport from officials at the High Commission in London.
At one point, Mr. Hussain telephoned a senior Pakistani official at 2 a.m., in a state of distress, demanding that he be issued a passport immediately, said a senior Pakistani official speaking on condition of anonymity.
Days later, the Pakistani high commissioner in London, Wajid Shamsul Hassan, visited Mr. Hussain at his home with another official to take Mr. Hussain's fingerprints and start a passport application.
The charges against Mr. Hussain stem from a police investigation into the death of Imran Farooq, a former party loyalist who was stabbed to death outside his home near Mr. Hussain's office in Edgeware in 2010.
Mr. Farooq had once been a close associate of Mr. Hussain, who publicly mourned his passing. But the two men had fallen out before his death, and the police investigation started to close in on Mr. Hussain and his associates.
The police raided Mr. Hussain's office in December 2012 and his house in June 2013, impounding about $600,000 in cash and arresting Iftikhar Hussain, a nephew of Mr. Hussain who worked as a personal assistant.
This spring, British officials asked Pakistan's interior minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali, for access to two Pakistani men linked to the death of Mr. Farooq. Pakistani officials said the two men were believed to be in the custody of the ISI, the country's top military intelligence agency.
Scotland Yard named the two men and published their photographs last week, apparently in a bid to pressure the Pakistani authorities to hand them over. They were identified as Moshin Ali Syed, 29, and Muhammad Kashif Khan Kamran, 34. Both men were in London at the time of Mr. Farooq's death and flew to Pakistan that night.
The investigation into the killing brought police scrutiny of Mr. Hussain's finances in London. Mr. Hussain has considerable living expenses in London - his house is guarded by a private security team including former soldiers from the British Army - and his party officials have scrambled to explain the sources of his funding.
One businessman, who had donated $25,000 to the M.Q.M., told The New York Times, on the condition of anonymity, that he had been asked by party officials to sign a statement saying that he had donated $500,000.
Under British police regulations, Mr. Hussain is likely to be interviewed by investigators who will then consult with the Crown Prosecution Service about whether to press charges against him.
Posted by Unknown on Tuesday, June 3, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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