MQM-P leaders changing loyalties under coercion, claims Sattar

KARACHI: Farooq Sattar, leader of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s (MQM-P) PIB Colony group, on Sunday brushed aside Pak Sarzameen Party’s (PSP) repeated offer to join the party, saying he would prefer to die than to join any other party. 

Speaking at a press conference early Sunday morning, he said free and fair elections are not possible in current situation. “The elections are being engineered,” he claimed.

Sattar said the process of forcing his party men to change loyalties has been ongoing, adding that the MQM-P leaders have not joined the Kamal-led PSP out of their own freewill.

They were switching loyalties under coercion, he claimed.

The MQM-P leader said he desired to meet Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar and Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa for redressal of his grievance.

A day earlier, another MQM-P leader Shabbir Ahmed Qaimkhani joined the PSP following a meeting with the party leadership in Karachi.

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 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.