Sattar calls party’s consultative meeting over Senate elections

ISLAMABAD: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) convener Dr Farooq Sattar on Friday has summoned the party’s consultative meeting of MPAs over the upcoming Senate elections at his residence in Karachi’s PIB Colony.

The announcement by Sattar was made during a meeting with MQM-P MNAs in Islamabad in the wee hours of Friday morning.

Sattar also called upon the party MNAs to extend their stay in the federal capital and cast their votes in the Senate elections scheduled to be held on March 3.

On the other hand, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is to take up a petition filed by the party’s discontented Bahadurabad group over the party convenership.

The major opposition party in Sindh split into two groups ahead of Senate elections in March over the nominations.

Bahadurabad faction removed Farooq Sattar as party chief for “violating its constitution and overstepping his authority”.

Afterwards, in a tit for tat move Sattar dissolved the Rabita Committee (Coordination Committee) and announced to hold intra-party elections to elect the new party head.

Sattar offers convenership election to unify party

In a bid to evade the ECP intervention in the party affairs, Sattar on Thursday had challenged the jurisdiction of the commission to hear the petition filed by the alienated group pertaining to the party’s convenership.

Sattar through his lawyer Babar Sattar petitioned the ECP against a decision of approving a plea filed by Rabita Committee-led Bahadurabad group for hearing.

The ECP couldn’t hear the party’s internal affairs, the MQM-P leader contended in his petition.

The petitioner also pleaded with the commission to dismiss the petition submitted by the party’s splinter group.

Talking to press outside the ECP premises, Sattar took exception to the commission’s intervention and insisted that the MQM-P belongs to the party workers and only they would protect it.

He offered an intra-party election for the convenership to Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui in a bid to unify the party and evade the ECP intervention.

“Moving to the ECP on the party’s convenership issue was groundless,” the MQM-P leader said.

Sattar maintained that the issue of convenership could be resolved within the framework of the party’s constitution.