UK court orders MQM-P to pay £65,000 to Altaf Hussain

• Hussain will "launch claim of over £100,000" against former devotees. 
• Court permits Hussain for release of £77,760 into his lawyer’s account. 
• Hussain claims Barrister Farogh Nasim "conspired against me".

LONDON: Three Lord Justices of the UK Court of Appeal have ordered the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) to pay £65000, which amounts to around Rs23,333,855 or Rs23.3 million, to the MQM founder Altaf Hussain before July 30, 2024, in legal costs.

Hussain won at the Court of Appeal against his former devotees at MQM-P, who defected from him in August 2016.

According to the order released by the court following a unanimous decision by three judges accepting Hussain’s appeal and overturning an earlier decision favouring MQM-P, the Court of Appeal’s Civil Division has ordered the MQM-P to pay £65000 towards the costs of the appeal.

Generally, the courts order the losing party to make such payments to the claimants or winning side when such applications or petitions are opposed, to begin with, by the defendants.

The court has also permitted Hussain for the release of £77,760 into his lawyer’s account — the amount he was asked to deposit earlier after the single bench judge gave a decision against him.

MQM spokesperson Mustafa Azizabadi told Geo News that Hussain will soon be launching a claim of over £100,000 at the court against MQM-P for the legal costs incurred during the first part of the trial before the Insolvency and Companies Judge Jones.

MQM-P leader and the claimant in the case Syed Aminul Haque told Geo News over the phone from Karachi that he will instruct his lawyer in London to comply with the court orders.

The former federal law minister said: “We are a rule of law party. 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 making it as if the case is over. It's not.

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

After overturning the initial decision, the court order by the three Lord Justices directs that: "The constitutional issue shall be remitted back to the high court for a further hearing, such hearing to take place 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 a representative of MQM-P can prove that amendments made to the April 2016 constitution of MQM on August 31-September 1 in 2016 were constitutional as a result of which he has locus standi to bring the claim."

The court order states that the further hearing shall proceed on the basis that; as of August 31 2016, the April 2016 constitution was MQM-P constitution; the true effect and extent of Hussain stepping down on August 23, 2016 remains an issue for the further hearing; any findings made by the judge as to the impact or the significance of the events after September 1, 2016 have been overruled 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 of the UK’s Court of Appeal accepted the MQM founder's appeal against the judgment handed down over a year ago by the Insolvency and Companies Judge Jones — depriving Hussain of six London properties worth around £10 million, in favour of the Pakistani faction of MQM, led by Haque and Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui.

Hussain had appealed the single judge’s decision before the Court of Appeal, arguing that the judge failed to take into consideration basic facts of how his party was hijacked by Dr Farooq Sattar and other MQM-P leaders in Karachi who didn’t let Hussain return to the MQM after his August 22, 2016, speech and then his voluntary relinquishing of powers to Sattar and the Central Coordination Committee (CCC).

The ICC Judge Jones had declared that the MQM-P leader and former federal minister Haque was right to bring a claim for the Trust properties; that the real and legitimate MQM was the one based in Pakistan and therefore beneficiary of the six London properties.

The Court of Appeal judges Lord Justice Arnold, Lord Justice Moylan and Lord Justice Nugee have overturned the High Court Judge Jones’ March 13, 2023 ruling that MQM-P is MQM and that Hussain and his supporters do not have a valid defence as trustees to challenge the unconstitutional acts of MQM-P on August 31-September 1, in 2016.

On Thursday, Altaf Hussain addressed a press conference to “celebrate” his win 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 government under Imran Khan as the prime minister — by the state of Pakistan and MQM-P was only a tool in the hands of the state.

Akbar also named a minister of Khan's cabinet who played the key part.

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

The Court of Appeal has accepted Hussain’s ground that without deciding the constitutionality of MQM-P acts, the High court judge erred in deciding that MQM-P is the real MQM.

The judges also accepted the arguments of Hussain that he did not step back from his role in MQM but was asked by Sattar to temporarily step back until the situation in Pakistan calms down but was later ditched by him and his allies by bringing Article 6 (treason) resolution against Hussain in Sindh and national assemblies.

The court has further stated that without having evidence on the backgrounds of the events unfolding to that announcement, it cannot be said that he stepped down as the party chief of MQM and that the High Court must investigate the claims of violence August 20, 2016 on MQM workers.