An anti-terrorism court awarded on Saturday five-year jail time each to former MQM sector in-charge Raees Mama in two separate cases.

He was awarded the sentence after it was proven that he collected funds for MQM-London and laundered money for his group.

There are at least 18 other cases pending against the former MQM sector in-charge in the courts, including the murder of a member of an intelligence agency and an attack on the house of MQM-Haqeeqi chief Afaq Ahmed.

Mama, the former sector in-charge of MQM in Karachi’s Korangi, was arrested with the help of interpol in Malaysia in December 2017 and was brought to Karachi in February 2018.

He was believed to be a close aide of Hammad Siddiqui, the former in-charge of MQM’s Karachi Tanzeemi Committee. Siddiqui is a prime suspect in the Baldia factory fire case. Over 250 people were burnt to death after a fire erupted in a garment factory in September 2012 in Baldia Town.