ISLAMABAD/KARACHI: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) formally accepted Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui as Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) convener and registered the party under his name, ARY News reported.
According to ARY News correspondent Zahid Mashwani, the ECP, while acting on the petition submitted by MQM’s Rabita Committee, revised MQM-P’s registration with Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui as it’s convener.
Siddiqui was elected by MQM-P’s Rabita Committee as the party’s convener after “removal” of his predecessor Farooq Sattar, who did not accept the committee’s decision and in turn announced an intra-party election and a general workers’ session on February 17.
MQM-P leader Farogh Nasim earlier told media that the real MQM-P is there in the party’s Bahadurabab office and the party is no longer registered in Farooq Sattar’s name.
“Rabita Committee can remove the party convener and the committee also has the right to award Senate tickets,” said Farogh Nasim, who added that Sattar is free to legally challenge the Bahadurabad faction’s moves but the general workers’ session he has announced is a violation of party constitution.
Both MQM-P Rabita Committee and Farooq Sattar removed each other on Sunday as Sattar announced dissolving the party’s Rabita Committee, hours after members of the coordination committee at the party’s Bahadurabad office said Sattar was no longer the convener of the party.
Sattar and the Rabita Committee had been at loggerheads over the allotment of Senate tickets. The rift intensified as the Rabita Committee wrote a letter to the February 16, informing the electoral body that the authority to issue the party tickets rests with the committee, not the convener.
 formally accepted Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui as MQM-P convener and registered the party under his name, ARY News reported.){kind=link}