KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Farooq Sattar will submit a plea to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) seeking the dissolution of the party’s Rabita Committee.
His decision came after the committee sacked him as convener of the political party and selected Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui as deputy convener in his place.
Sattar had called for fresh intra-party polls on February 17. He had asked the MQM’s Bahadurabad faction to return before the said date so that they could form the committee. On the other hand, a spokesperson of ECP refuted the claims of MQM-P Bahadurabad faction and said that the party was not registered under the name of Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui.
He also said that the ECP had not entertained any application regarding change of MQM-P leadership and added that the party retained its old status in the ECP.
The spokesperson further said that a change in MQM-P leadership could be made only after the new party elections. He also clarified that ECP’s Sindh returning officer decided to award Senate ticket per the MQM-P constitution. Apart from this, rifts among the two factions over the party’s election symbol ‘kite’ had also emerged in the recent past, so much so that the Bahadurabad faction had decorated their offices with the kite symbol ahead of the Senate elections.
Earlier on Monday, the MQM-P faction headed by Khalid Maqbool claimed that MQM-P was now registered under the name of the new deputy convener, who would preside over the Rabita Committee meetings from now on.
The party members also said that ECP had allotted them the kite symbol, which they would use in the upcoming elections.
It should be noted here that MQM-P broke into factions after Dr Sattar backed Kamran Tessori to contest the Senate elections scheduled to be held in March.
ECP had accepted the nomination papers for the upcoming Senate elections forwarded by Khalid Maqbool Siddique and Tessori. The commission accepted the nomination papers of Barrister Farogh Naseem and Nasreen Jalil which bore the signatures of the newly-appointed convener.
Earlier on Monday night, MQM-P leader Farooq Sattar termed the prevailing Rabita Committee as illegal and unconstitutional. While talking to reporters outside his residence in PIB Colony, Sattar said that party activists had authorised him to conduct intra-party elections. He urged the party workers and leaders to boycott the prevailing Rabita Committee.
Sattar further said that Bahadurabad drama should be closed. He said that he would issue the tickets for the upcoming general elections, while adding that the symbol of kite would be allotted to him. Sattar said that he would announce an interim committee soon.
