Farooq bows down to opponent group over Senate tickets

• Bahadurabad faction leader Aminul Haq welcomes Sattar’s offer, says MQM-P wants unity

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) chief Farooq Sattar on Friday announced to withdraw his powers to nominate the candidates for the Senate elections as he bowed before the Bahadurabad faction and said that he was willing to take four names for Senate from the opposing group.

Addressing a press conference in the afternoon, he offered an olive branch to the Bahadurabad group to end the current impasse over the issue of Senate tickets. He said he made the call to save the party from disintegrating. He told reporters that the Rabita Committee will put forth four names for the Senate polls which he will accept.

“We will accept the four names given by Bahadurabad group,” he stated.

Sattar expressed his concerns on the matter that the Rabita Committee removed him from the authority despite opposition in the party and claimed that 22 MPAs are with the PIB group—a group led by Sattar— while 12 are with that of Bahadurabad.

He resented that the matter would have been solved if Amir Khan had paid him a visit.

He announced that there will be an intra-party election on Feb 18, recalling that he had saved the party from disintegrating in August last year. He said MQM-P is registered under his name and only he can use the party symbol of Kite.

On the other hand, the MQM-P PIB faction had also organised a list of candidates for the intra-party elections.

“After days of consultations, we have decided to offer those in Bahadurabad that they can submit their four names for Senate nominations and we will accept those,” said the party leader.

Sattar said the issue was not related to his ego as “if it was about Farooq Sattar’s ego, the issue would be left hanging”.

Referring to the party’s opposing group which emerged over Senate nominations, the MQM-P leader further said that the workers were with him and the perception should not be given that he was being stubborn.

‘Sattar’s offer welcome sign’

MQM-P’s Bahudurabad faction member Aminul Haq welcomed Sattar’s offer and said he will convey it to the Rabita Committee.

“MQM-P wants unity,” he said.

He again reiterated the faction’s stance and said they had visited Sattar at PIB on three separate occasions and the entire Rabita Committee also waited for him over an hour.

We had also asked Sattar to head the Rabita Committee and had asked him to visit Bahadurabad multiple times, but sadly Farooq bhai did not even try to meet us even once, the MQM leader lamented.

Amin added that the Rabita Committee can remove whoever it wants with a two-third majority and they have submitted a copy of the party’s decision to the ECP.

Earlier, Sattar had announced that he was dissolving the party’s Rabita Committee, hours after members of the coordination committee at the party’s Bahadurabad office said he was no longer the convener of the party.

The latest episode of infighting between two factions of the party started over the issue of distribution of party tickets for next month’s Senate elections, with the Bahadurabad group opposing Sattar’s nomination of relative newcomer Kamran Tessori over seasoned party leader.

But, speaking to the media on Sunday, Sattar said the issue was not over the distribution of Senate tickets but a conspiracy had been hatched to seize control of the party.

The dispute between the PIB Colony and Bahadurabad factions had emerged on February 6 after both parties had taken different positions on the nominations of party members for the upcoming Senate elections.

On the other hand, the Bahadurabad faction on Friday changed the venue of its general workers meeting which is now scheduled at Gulshan e Iqbal Karachi.

Earlier, the meeting was summoned at Nazimabad Prayer ground but the authorities did not allow the MQM-P faction to hold its event there citing that the ground was meant for children playground.

Moreover, ahead of today’s meeting of Bahadurabad faction’s general workers’, the members of Rabita Committee visited the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Ground to review arrangements.

Talking to media, Bahadurabad faction’s leader Amir Khan said that they accepted all the demands of former party chief Dr Farooq Sattar and asked him to come but Sattar refused to come.

He said that they wanted to run the party according to rules, adding that the decision was in the hands of party workers.