KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) is considering legal options following Arshad Vohra’s failure to resign as deputy mayor.
MQM-P is planning to write to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) after it goes ahead with the planned protest.
Through the letter, MQM-P will inform the ECP of the Vohra’s departure from the party and will point towards a clause in the local government law which allows a party to approach ECP in case of an elected party member’s defection.
The act states that an elected member cannot continue to hold the office in case of a party’s objections or if the member leaves the party.
On October 29, Vohra left the MQM-P and joined the Mustafa Kamal-led Pakistan Sarzameen Party (PSP) saying that it was getting difficult for him to continue serving the people of Karachi as a mayor while staying in the MQM-P.
Later, MQM-P’s chief Farooq Sattar appointed two key members of his party to talk to Vohra and bring him back into the party fold.
According to reports, the party still wants Vohra to come back and hence has not revoked his party membership. They have still not decided whether to bring a new deputy mayor in place of Vohra or not.
He had claimed that Vohra was worried due to the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) recent case against him, which was one of the reasons that he had defected to the PSP.
“Anis Qaimkhani will help Vohra with the FIA case,” the MQM-P chief had said, requesting the PSP leader to “take care” of his former political affiliate.
