UK courts order MQM-P to pay £65,000 to Altaf Hussain

• Hussain will make a claim for more than £100,000 against former supporters.
• The court allows Hussain to transfer £77,760 to his lawyer’s account.
• Hussain alleges that lawyer Farogh Nasim “conspired against me”.

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LONDON: Three Lord Justices of the UK Court of Appeal have ordered the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) to pay £65,000, equivalent to approximately Rs23,333,855 or Rs23.3 million, to MQM founder Altaf Hussain by July 30, 2024, towards legal costs.

Hussain won a lawsuit at the Court of Appeal against his former MQM-P supporters, who deserted him in August 2016.

In the order, which was issued by the court following a unanimous decision by three judges allowing Hussain’s appeal and quashing an earlier decision in favour of the MQM-P, the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal ordered the MQM-P to pay £65,000 to cover the costs of the appeal.

Normally, courts order the losing party to make such payments to the plaintiffs or the winning party, when such requests or petitions are initially denied by the defendants.

The court also allowed Hussain to transfer £77,760 to his lawyer’s account, the amount he was previously ordered to pay after the judge ruled against him in a single hearing.

MQM spokesperson Mustafa Azizabadi said Geo News that Hussain will soon file a claim for over £100,000 in court against MQM-P for legal costs incurred during the first part of the trial before the insolvency and companies judge Jones.

MQM-P leader and plaintiff in the case, Syed Aminul Haque, said Geo News by telephone from Karachi that he will instruct his lawyer in London to comply with the court orders.

The former federal justice minister said: “We are a party that adheres to the rule of law. We will comply with all court orders. We won unequivocally before the Insolvency and Companies Judge Jones and we will win again. MQM-London is acting as if the case is over. It is not.

“The British Court of Appeal has sent the case back to the lower court to look at some unresolved issues. We are confident that we will win there again. The British properties belong to MQM-P and we will get these properties for the benefit of the families of our workers and our martyrs.”

After the initial decision was quashed, the three Lord Justices’ order stated: “The constitutional question will be remitted to the High Court for a further hearing, which hearing will be before a judge other than the Insolvency and Companies Judge Jones; the purpose of the further hearing will be to determine whether the claimant Haque, as representative of MQM-P, can prove that the amendments made to the MQM’s Articles of Association between 31 August and 1 September 2016 in April 2016 were constitutional, and that he has standing to bring the claim on that basis.”

The court order states that the further hearing will take place on the basis that: as of 31 August 2016, the April 2016 Constitution was the Constitution of MQM-P; the actual consequences and extent of Hussain’s resignation on 23 August 2016 remain a matter for further hearing; all findings of the judge regarding the impact or significance of events after 1 September 2016 have been rejected by the Court of Appeal; and Mr Haque is a representative of the members of MQM-P and entitled to bring this claim on their behalf.

Last week, three judges at Britain’s Court of Appeal upheld the MQM founder’s appeal against a ruling handed down more than a year ago by insolvency and companies judge Jones, which stripped Hussain of six London properties worth around £10 million in favour of the Pakistani branch of the MQM, led by Haque and Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui.

Hussain had appealed the single-judge ruling to the Court of Appeal, arguing that the judge had failed to take into account the basic facts of how his party was hijacked by Dr Farooq Sattar and other MQM-P leaders in Karachi. They did not allow Hussain to return to the MQM after his speech on August 22, 2016 and his voluntary transfer of powers to Sattar and the Central Coordination Committee (CCC).

ICC Judge Jones had stated that MQM-P leader and former federal minister Haque had rightly claimed the Trust properties; the real and legitimate MQM was the one based in Pakistan and therefore the beneficiary of the six properties in London.

The Court of Appeal judges, Lord Justice Arnold, Lord Justice Moylan and Lord Justice Nugee, quashed the judgment of High Court Judge Jones of 13 March 2023, which held that MQM-P is MQM and that Hussain and his supporters have no valid defence as trustees to challenge the unconstitutional actions of MQM-P from 31 August to 1 September 2016.

On Thursday, Altaf Hussain held a press conference to “celebrate” his victory at the Court of Appeal. He praised former accountability minister Shehzad Akbar who said in a tweet that the case against Hussain was started four years ago — when PTI and MQM-P were partners in the government under Imran Khan as prime minister — by the state of Pakistan and MQM-P was just a tool in the hands of the state.

Akbar also appointed a minister from Khan’s cabinet who played a key role.

Hussain said the minister was Advocate Farogh Nasim who “conspired against me and changed the MQM constitution”. He thanked Shehzad Akbar for setting the record straight and speaking the truth.

The Court of Appeal accepted Hussain’s contention that the Supreme Court judge, without determining the constitutionality of the MQM-P laws, wrongly held that MQM-P is the real MQM.

The judges also accepted Hussain’s arguments that he had not stepped down from his role in the MQM but that Sattar had asked him to step back temporarily till the situation in Pakistan calmed down. However, he was later abandoned by him and his allies by moving an Article 6 (treason) resolution against Hussain in Sindh and the national assemblies.

The court further held that without evidence about the background of events leading up to that announcement, it cannot be said that he had resigned as MQM party leader and that the Supreme Court must investigate the allegations of violence against MQM workers on August 20, 2016.