Judicial system of Pakistan is under thumb of powerful forces: MQM leader Altaf Hussain

May 31, 2023

London [UK], May 31 : The judicial system of Pakistan is under the thumb of powerful forces, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Altaf Hussain said after Sindh High Court dismissed the petition against the ban on his speeches.
"The judicial system is under the thumb of powerful forces and all roads and ways for justice are being closed. It's a miserable situation that Mohajirs have been made aliens in Pakistan," the MQM leader reacted to the Sindh Court's decision.
Earlier, on Tuesday, a two-member bench of the Sindh High Court dismissed the constitutional petition against the ban on speeches of Hussain.
The petition was filed by the MQM leader and former Member of the National Assembly Nisar Ahmed Panhwar last year.
He also stated that it is a miserable situation that Mohajirs have been made aliens in Pakistan.
Talking about the 2015, 6-month embargo, that Lahore High Court imposed on him, Hussain said that the embargo restricted the mainstream TV in the public and private sectors and the newspapers to publish or broadcast my statements and write-ups.
He further stated that the slain former President of the Supreme Court Bar Association Asma Jahangir took a principled stance and had filed a petition in the same Lahore High Court and the Supreme Court.
She was a renowned barrister-at-law and a very kind rights activist. On this courageous stance, powerful forces had first done their worst to see her abandon her petition but when she shuffled all such notorious acts of intimidation, she was poisoned to death.
The slain academician and MQM Deputy Convener Professor Hasan Zafar Arif had approached the court along with a petition in the Sindh High Court with which he challenged the unlawful siege of MQM head office famed as 'Nine Zero' and had sought relief on the basis of justice.
Firstly, he was arrested in October 2016, when he got released and started his efforts again to get justice, on January 13, 2018, unidentified armed men in plain clothes abducted him. He was subjected to brutal physical torture and finally, he succumbed to his injuries. He was extrajudicially murdered for showing courage and raising his voice against injustices and tyranny.
The perpetrators had dumped his severely tortured body at a deserted location in close vicinity of Ibrahim Hyderi. He was placed in his car's rear seat.
Later on, one of MQM's former coordination committee members and former MNA, Nisar Ahmed Panhwar approached the Sindh High Court on August 27, 2022, with a petition against the embargo through eminent lawyer Khalid Mumtaz and the higher court fixed a date of August 30 for first hearing.
However, the paramilitary Rangers had abducted him a day earlier on August 29. He was released on 11 October 2022 after his unlawful custody for many days. Advocate Mumtaz had on Panhwar's behalf filed several applications with the Sindh High Court for the commencement of hearing on his petition.