KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Dr Farooq Sattar-led faction approached the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday and submitted details of several resolutions and decisions taken in the workers’ convention of the party.
MQM-P leader Ahsan Iqbal Qadri, on behalf of Dr Sattar, also submitted a letter and a resolution passed by the party’s general workers assembly on February 11. According to the letter, the general working meeting called by Farooq Sattar on February 11 was under article 13-A of the party’s constitution.
According to the letter, article-6 of the party’s constitution reads: “The general working meeting is considered as the General Assembly of the Party with powers to allow or regularise ad hoc and interim changes in the organisation or party structure, and inclusion or removal of any office bearer.”
The letter maintained that the February 11 meeting called by Sattar fell under article 6 of the MQM-P constitution and the resolution passed in the meeting sets the future course of the party. According to what the letter termed the “gist of the unanimously passed resolution”, the meeting called by “the Rabita Committee on February 11, 2018, at Bahadurabad, Karachi was illegal” and subsequently, so were all the resolutions passed there.
In the light of the said assembly, the document claimed that Sattar would remain convener of the party until fresh intra-party elections are held on February 17, while the Rabita Committee stands dissolved per the order of the convener.
The fissure between leaders of the MQM-P started to show after Farooq Sattar nominated Kamran Tessori to contest the March 3 Senate elections. The party’s coordination committee refused to accept Sattar’s nomination which resulted in the creation of two factions within the party.
After a very public tussle over the party tickets, MQM-P’s coordination committee members on Sunday announced that they had removed the party head Dr Farooq Sattar and appointed member of National Assembly (MNA) Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui in his place as the new convener.
However, Dr Sattar responded by dissolving the coordination committee and announced holding intra-party elections on Feb 17.
