Another MQM-P lawmaker joins PSP

KARACHI: Another lawmaker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) on Wednesday announced to quit the party and joining the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP). 

Syed Anwar Raza, a member of the provincial assembly elected from PS-102, joined the Mustafa Kamal-led party.

The PSP chief made this announcement during a press conference at Pakistan House in the metropolis. Speaking to the media, Kamal lashed out at K-Electric for carrying out extended hours of load-shedding in the city in the sweltering weather.

He said the city is reeling under power outages of upto 14 hours in a day and slammed Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah for not taking immediate measures to remedy the situation.

Of late, a large number of lawmakers have defected to the PSP citing the political infighting within the MQM-P. On April 08, Mehboob Alam MNA and Saifuddin Khalid and Muhammad Kamran MPAs jumped out of the MQM-P ship.

The MQM-P is embroiled in a tug of war over power since the start of the year, but internal rifts became much more evident, making headlines when the party virtually split into two factions – Dr Sattar-led PIB and Amir Khan-led Bahadurabad factions, over the issue of party tickets for the Senate elections.

As a result, Bahadurabad 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 and announced to hold intra-party elections to elect new party head.

Recently, the Election Commission of Party removed Sattar as party chief, which was suspended by the Islamabad High Court.