LONDON: Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain on Tuesday apologised to Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif and Rangers Director General (DG) Maj-Gen Bilal Akber forhis vitriolic speech the other day in which he referred to Pakistan as “a cancer for entire world”. “From the depth of heart, I beg pardon from my remarks against Pakistan, the establishment, including Gen Raheel Sharif and Rangers DG,” he said in a statement shared on Twitter by MQM spokesperson Wasay Jalil. “I was under severe mental stress over extra-judicial arrests and precarious condition of my workers sitting at the hunger strike camp.” Parts of the speech that went viral on social media showed that while addressing MQM workers protesting outside the Karachi Press Club against “enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings”, Altaf Hussain not only raised slogans against Pakistan but also called the country “a cancer for [the] entire world”.