LONDON: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain claims victory as the Royal Courts of Justice issued a detailed order this week in the London properties case, worth around £10 million, accepting Altaf’s appeal and sending the case back to the high court.
The ruling, anticipated since April 2024, represents a significant development in the protracted properties dispute that saw Mr. Hussain locked in a lengthy legal battle against the leaders of his former party.
In March 2023, MQM-P won a court battle against Mr. Hussain over the ownership of seven London properties. Judge Clive Jones of the High Court of Justice Business and Property Court of England and Wales ruled that MQM-P is the legitimate MQM, making its members the lawful beneficiaries of the properties. The court determined that MQM-P had adopted the April 2016 Constitution, rather than the 2015 one.
Altaf appealed the single judge’s ruling to the Court of Appeal, arguing that the judge had overlooked key details about how Dr. Farooq Sattar and other MQM leaders in Karachi took over his party, preventing him from rejoining MQM following his August 22, 2016 speech, and his subsequent voluntary handover of authority to Dr. Sattar and the Central Coordination Committee (CCC).
The three judges have now sent the matter back to the high court, directing it to investigate the change in MQM’s constitution.
