Shumaila Imran Farooq, the wife of former Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Dr Imran Farooq has called for the prosecution of her husband’s alleged killers before a British court of law. MQM leader Dr Imran Farooq was murdered outside his house in Edgeware, London on September 16, 2010 while he was walking home from his workplace. A post-mortem examination of his body revealed that he was stabbed to death. Shumaila Imran Farooq, in a message she issued on the 18th death anniversary of her husband said that September 16 remained ‘a very painful and sad day’ for her. She said that her children, Alishaan Farooq aged 13 and Wejdaan Farooq aged 11 wanted justice for their father who was assassinated in broad daylight. “My wish is that those who killed him are caught. Ameen,” wrote Shumaila Farooq in reference to Mohsin Ali Syed and Kashif Khan Kamran, who allegedly killed Dr Farooq and then successfully fled from Heathrow airport to Colombo and then to Karachi. The two men were arrested by the Pakistani authorities in Karachi. Reportedly, one of the suspects Kashif Khan Kamran died in police custody while Mohsin Ali Syed is still in detention along with Moazzam Ali Khan and Khalid Shamim who were members of the All Pakistan Mohajir Students Organisation (APMSO) before they joined MQM. Last month, Dr Imran Farooq’s widow took her sons Alishaan and Wejdaan Farooq to Karachi to visit the grave of their father. Imran Farooq’s son Alishaan Farooq also issued a message on Twitter on Saturday. “Dear father, I hope you have a great time in heaven and are watching me and my little brother grow as people. I hope that you are seeing the struggles my Ammi has gone through,” read Alishaan’s tweet. According to the Metropolitan (Met) police, investigation into the murder of Imran Farooq remains active. “We are committed to bring Dr Imran Farooq’s killers to justice,” Met police informed media. However, according to media reports off the record police sources confirmed that the murder investigation suffered a stalemate because of a legal tug of war that ensured between Pakistan and the United Kingdom (UK). Reportedly, the UK police believe that Pakistani authorities did not help the case to reach at its logical end by refusing to share details of the arrest of the killers on time and the Met police blame the Pakistani authorities for not taking their law enforcement authorities into confidence and causing delays in facilitating investigation requests. Sources reported that the biggest complaint of the Met police is that Pakistan started proceedings against the suspected killers inside Pakistan while the Met wanted the suspects to be handed over to Britain and to be tried in the British court of law. Reportedly, at the time of Dr Imran Farooq’s murder, the MQM leader had fallen out with the MQM founder and was in the process of forming his own political party. MQM has been widely blamed for the murder of its own former leader but the investigators in Britain said that there was no direct evidence establishing the party founder’s link with the murder. MQM founder Altaf Hussain along with seven other suspects remained on police bail for two years but was cleared after the investigation hit the stalemate. Pakistan on its part says that it does not have an extradition treaty with Britain. The former interior minister Chaudhary Nisar actively pursured the case and pushed for its resolution but not much came out of his efforts because the Pakistani and UK based investigation teams continued to maintain divergent views over the murder case. Meanwhile, the MQM leadership continues to deny involvement in the murder terming it ‘a conspiracy against the party’. Published in Daily Times, September 17th 2018.