Sindh police get four-day remand of PPP's Asim Hussain

KARACHI (Staff Report) - An anti-terrorism court Thursday remanded former federal minister Dr Asim Hussain into police custody for four days to interrogate him in a case of corruption and alleged terror financing.

Amid heavy security of police and Rangers, the accused was produced in Karachi anti-terrorism court where police investigators sought Dr Asim’s remand to interrogate him.

The judge, after hearing arguments of the prosecutor general and Asim’s counsel, granted his physical remand to police, ordering his production in next hearing on Monday.

Earlier an FIR was registered against Hussain on the request of Sindh Rangers under the charges of protecting the terrorists and receiving kickbacks for allocating contracts to his favourites while holding top government offices.

Read more: PPP’s Sharjeel Memon, Dr Asim, placed on ECL

He has been accused of treating wanted criminals and terrorists on the instructions of several MQM leaders and PPP's Abdul Qadir Patel.

Sections of anti-terrorism act have also been included in the FIR.

The interior ministry has also placed his name, along with another PPP leader Sharjeel Inam Memon, on the Exit Control List (ECL).

According to reliable sources, the former minister for petroleum had confessed to sheltering hundreds of target killers associated with Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in Zia-ud-Din Hospital during his 90-days custody to Sindh Rangers.

Asim Hussain revealed his close ties with key MQM leaders including Dr Farooq Sattar, Dr Sagheer, Dr Nadeem Nusrat, Mustafa Azizabadi and Adil Siddiqui, and said that he appointed Dr Yousuf Sattar Memon as an executive upon request of MQM leaders.

He added that Memon is an “ideological” worker of MQM and has been treating and protecting MQM’s target killers in his hospitals located in North Nazimabad area of Karachi.

“Memon treated hundred of MQM associated target killers at my hospitals upon instruction of senior MQM leadership,” the PPP leader told the investigators. Most of these workers were those injured during criminal activities, he added.

Hussain claimed that Memon used to visit MQM headquarters, Nine Zero, for checkup of party leaders and their families. The MQM workers also received up to 50% discount by Dr Yousuf Sattar Memon. The hospital used to send bills for treatment of MQM workers to Nine Zero which were afterwards paid through Khidmat-e-Khalaq Foundation (KKF) of the party.

While disclosing details about his relationship with Memon Dr Asim disclosed that he was hired as CMO at Zia-ud-Din hospital in 1989 however he left the job in 1990. Memon rejoined in 1992 and was appointed as hospital’s administrator in 1998. Moreover during all this time he was also working in Qatar Hospital as DMS but very occasionally visited the hospital. He was one of the key donors of MQM’s welfare trust KKF and donated large amount to the party after 2005’s earthquake as well.

Former minister also told that his forefathers belonged to Indian city of Aligarh and that he visited India for 7-8 times in last decade. "I last visited India as federal minister for petroleum in 2011," he said.

Another source privy to inside information told Daily Pakistan Global that though Dr Asim Hussain is a close aide of former president Asif Ali Zardari yet he also enjoyed close ties with MQM as well, and that he was accused of being an MQM facilitator.

“Dr Asim acted as a bridge between Pakistan Peoples Party and MQM,  he has been accused of being MQM facilitator. During investigation by security agencies his name surface in many cases related to MQM. This is primarily the reason that he has been arrested under Protection of Pakistan Ordinance.”