Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain has been fined by a UK court for tax-evasion over a 20-years time period.
Altaf Hussain has been fined by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for tax evasion of more than £2 million in total for a period spanning across more than two decades.
HMRC has also launched a detailed investigation to further determine the total extent of Altaf Hussain’s earnings over the years and his dues.
The investigation comprises on income, payments, assets accumulation and National Insurance contributions which were never paid between 1995 and 2015.
According to details MQM founder’s house expenditure and settlement payment to his ex-wife Fiza Gabil and daughter Afzaa is around £50,000 per month.
However, this amount doesn’t include financial disbursements and payments made to the party’s staff who have been working at the London office for more than two decades now.
Meanwhile Altaf Hussain has contested the legal proceedings arguing that he has never been employed and hence does not owe any income tax dues to HMRC.
He has maintained that he only received donations given to him from Pakistan by party loyalists, workers and supporters.
In addition to it, Hussain has been at odds with former senior party members Muhammad Anwar and Tariq Mir who in fact are also named in the HMRC investigation.
It is to be noted that Muhammad Anwar and Tariq Mir are legal owners of 221 Whitchurch Lane and 185 Whitchurch Lane properties worth around £1.5 million and have essentially refused to hand over the properties to Mr Hussain.
Both Anwar and Mir have reiterated that one property will be transferred to Dr Imran Farooq’s widow Shumaila Imran Farooq and the other to the relatives of MQM-Pakistan’s martyrs.
