KARACHI: The body of Muttahida Qaumi Movement – London leader Prof Dr HasanZafar Arif was found in a car in Rehri Goth area of Ibrahim Haidery inKarachi on Sunday.
He was a resident of DHA Phase VI. The elderly retired professor’s identitycard was found with the body, which was shifted to Jinnah PostgraduateMedical Center.
According to JPMC director Dr Seemi Jamali, the cause of the death will beascertained after post-mortem.
On October 22, 2016, Sindh Rangers had taken Dr Arif and Kunwar KhalidYunus of the London-based MQM into custody from outside the Karachi PressClub, where they were due to address a press conference.
Before MQM London leaders arrived at the press club’s premises, a largenumber of Rangers personnel had taken positions in the surrounding area andwere checking the vehicles that were passing by.
Dr Arif was taken into custody before he could enter the press club. He wastaken in a Rangers mobile van to an undisclosed location.
He was finally released from Central Jail Karachi on April 18, 2017, afteran Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) issued his release order in a case pertainingto an alleged hate speech by party founder and leader Altaf Hussain.
Earlier on April 7, the ATC-I had granted him and another leader of theMQM’s London faction, Amjadullah Khan, bail in the case against a surety ofRs0.1 million. Khan was to be released on April 12, however, theauthorities took more than a week to verify the surety submitted by Dr Arif.
The court directed the Central Jail superintendent to release the retiredprofessor if not jailed in any other case.