An anti-terrorism court, on Saturday, called out lawyers of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leaders for being absent in hearing of two cases with reference to attack on media houses on August 22, 2016. The media houses were targeted after the party founder delivered a fiery speech, rousing workers to action. While Farooq Sattar and other accused did appear before the court, their lawyers were absent. The judge wondered, “Are you interested in the continuation of proceeding of the case or not? He added, “Three years have passed but either the accused or lawyers remain absent (in the hearing). But the court (is) held responsible for the delay.” Owing to the representation’s absence, the hearing was adjourned till June 13. In the previous hearing, the counsels of the accused had cross-examined prosecution witness and Judicial Magistrate Kaleemullah, who had conducted the identification parade. As many as nine accused including the MQM founder have already been declared proclaimed offenders. Last November, Sattar and other accused had pleaded not guilty of attacking media houses and facilitating the hate speech of the party’s founder when indicted by the court. Two cases were registered against the accused at Artillery police station of Karachi. On August 22, 2016, MQM workers went berserk after being provoked by their London-based leader’s acrimonious speech against the state agencies and the media.