KARACHI, May 9: The senior deputy convener of Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s coordination committee, Dr Farooq Sattar will be the MQM candidate in by-election for the National Assembly constituency NA-255.

The seat had fallen vacant due to the demise of Mahmood Qureshi of Mohajir Qaumi Movement.

Dr Farooq Sattar is to file his nomination papers on Saturday at the Judicial Complex, inside the Karachi Central Prison.

Dr Sattar, who had left for London in March with a plan to oversee party affairs from the British capital, has been sent back to Pakistan for his fourth stint as the party’s candidate in the by-election and that too from the so-called ‘no go area’.

He was first elected to the National Assembly from Haq Parast platform in 1988 and again in 1990. In 1993, as the MQM had boycotted the NA elections, Dr Sattar contested for the Sindh Assembly seat. In 1997 elections, he was elected as MNA as well as MPA and in the interest of the party, he had given up his seat in the National Assembly.

Dr Sattar’s sudden departure for London had generated speculations but the party leadership had dismissed them as ‘baseless’ and maintained that his London visit was part of the MQM’s changed operational strategy.

In a changing political environment, the unexpected return of Dr Sattar and his candidature for a constituency which the Muttahida had been describing as ‘no go area’, has assumed great significance.