KARACHI: A letter sent to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) by Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s (MQM-P) coordination committee regarding Senate nominations was retracted on Saturday.
Earlier on Friday, the letter was written by the coordination committee asking the ECP to not entertain the nominations submitted by the party’s estranged leader Farooq Sattar, claiming that it was the committee’s privilege to do so.
According to details, it was also announced by the committee that it was delegating the right to choose party’s elections candidates to deputy-convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui. The move, however, failed when the ECP ruled in Sattar’s favour, saying that nominating candidates for Senate elections is the sole right of a party’s leader.
Since the MQM-P is registered in Sattar’s name, therefore the right to hand out party tickets will be his call, said ECP.
The letter to the ECP escalated the conflict, forcing the coordination committee to retract the letter on Saturday.
MQM-P leader and MNA Kunwar Naveed Jamil told media that Sattar objected to the coordination committee’s letter and sent a message that he would visit the party’s Bahadurabad centre if that letter is retracted. Jamil announced the retraction of the letter and said that a delegation of the coordination committee will pay Sattar a visit at his stronghold in PIB Colony.
On Monday, a meeting of the coordination committee had been convened at the MQM-P’s temporary headquarters in Bahadurabad, where Dr Sattar had an altercation with senior leader Amir Khan when the latter, along with others, refused to endorse the former’s proposal to field Tessori as a candidate on one of the Senate general seats.
Sources said that majority of participants seconded Khan’s views, upon which Dr Sattar boycotted the meeting and left for his PIB Colony residence in a huff. He subsequently summoned all party members, excluding the coordination committee members, to his PIB Colony home.
Most MQM-P leaders had stayed put at the Bahadurabad headquarters, however, where senior leader Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui spoke to the media to say that the party had decided to nominate Nasreen Jalil (on first priority), followed by Dr Farogh Nasim, Aminul Haq, Shabbir Qaimkhani, Amir Khan and Tessori for six Senate seats.
He said Dr Sattar had wanted to sacrifice two of the top four candidates to accommodate Tessori.
After Dr Siddiqui’s media talk, Dr Sattar emerged from his home and told reporters that it was unconstitutional to hold a party meeting without his permission.
