KARACHI (DNA) – Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leaders Waseem Akhtar, Rauf Siddique and Pak Sarzameen Party’s Anees Qaimkhani have been taken into custody after an anti-terrorism court dismissed their bail pleas in a case registered against Dr Asim Hussain and others for treating and sheltering terrorists at Ziauddin Hospital in Karachi.

Meanwhile, Abdul Qadir Patel of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) escaped from the courtroom. The accused were earlier given protective bail by the SHC in the case.

Karachi‘s mayor nominee Waseem Akhtar declared his detention ‘unconstitutional and unlawful‘.

He vowed to file a formal appeal in the Sindh High Court (SHC) against the decision.

According to the investigation report, Dr Asim Hussain had confessed before a joint investigation team to have provided treatment to alleged MQM terrorists and gangsters of Lyari at his hospital and sheltered them on the request of MQM leaders Waseem Akhtar, Rauf Siddiqui, the then deputy convener Anis Qaimkhani and PPP leader Qadir Patel.

The suspected terrorists had suffered wounds during clash with Rangers and police.

The paramilitary Rangers had arrested Dr Hussain, former president Asif Zardari’s close aid and the chairman of the Sindh Higher Education Commission, from his office in Clifton area last year.