Altaf Hussain, the leader of Pakistan’s powerful MQM party, has been arrested by British police, reportedly on suspicion of money laundering. <br /><br />Hussein was detained at his home in London. He has lived in self-imposed exile in the UK since the early 1990s. <br /><br />The MQM party has called for calm from its supporters. But protests have erupted in Pakistan’s largest city Karachi, where the party has a huge support base.<br /><br />The MQM represents the interests of millions of Urdu-speaking descendants of Muslims who moved to Karachi and the surrounding areas at the time of the 1947 partition of India.<br /><br />Parts of Karachi have been locked down due to concerns that the protests could escalate into violence.
