Gunfire in Pakistani city, Stocks Drop on Report of Politician’s Arrest

[mota bhai 2,675]

Gunfire was heard around Karachi and Pakistani stocks slumped after media reports that Altaf Hussain, the leader of the largest political party in the nation’s commercial capital, was arrested in London.

The KSE-100 Index (KSE) fell as much 2.2 percent, the most in eight months, after media including state-owned Pakistan Television reported Hussain’s arrest. The index later pared its losses and finished the day down 1 percent. MCB Bank, Pakistan’s largest lender by value, dropped as much as 5% and ended 2.3 percent lower.

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Asked if Hussain had been arrested, a London police spokesman told Bloomberg News that a 60-year-old man was arrested in northwest London today on suspicion of money laundering and taken to a central London police station. He declined to identify the arrested individual more specifically.

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After the reports of the arrest emerged, shops, bazaars and commercial areas closed in Karachi. Geo TV and Ary News reported gunmen fired in the air to scare shopkeepers, forcing them to close their businesses. Cars were burnt in the streets as well.

Hussain has been living in the U.K. for the last 22 years, after leaving Pakistan to escape a military crackdown in 1992, ordered against criminals by then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Hussain then had said the army targeted his workers and other leaders.

Sharif was elected the nation’s prime minister again last year.

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Business centers in Hyderabad city, Nawabshah and Mirpurkhas, all in southern Sindh province also shut down after reports of Hussain’s arrest emerged, Ary News reported.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-03/gunfire-in-karachi-stocks-drop-on-report-of-politician-s-arrest.html

[Jacque67 7,328]

God bless the UK