KARACHI: Relations between two groups within the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan touched a new low on Friday when the group representing what they described as “a majority of the coordination committee” curtailed party head Dr Farooq Sattar’s powers to grant tickets to election candidates.

A day after the two groups — publicly called PIB group led by Dr Sattar and Bahadurabad group led by senior deputy convener Amir Khan — filed separate nomination papers for their respective candidates for the March 3 Senate elections, the MQM-P coordination committee held a meeting at its Bahadurabad headquarters and decided to take back Dr Sattar’s discretionary powers.

Although the coordination committee did not remove Dr Sattar from the post of convener, the action was widely viewed as a clear attempt to minus the seasoned leader who took reins of the party more than 17 months ago by removing London-based founder Altaf Hussain in almost a similar manner.

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The committee granted the said right to deputy convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, who later informed the Election Commission of Pakistan through a letter that according to Article 19-A of the party constitution only the coordination committee was authorised to issue party tickets to its candidates.

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Apparently hinting at implementing the minus-one formula, MQM leader Faisal Subzwari told reporters after the meeting that the party was not against Dr Sattar, but “we will not accept” his directive if it was in direct conflict with the party’s principles.

Announcing that the party had delegated the power to give tickets to Dr Siddiqui, he said it was beyond anyone’s understanding as to why Dr Sattar was giving so much importance to jeweller-turned-politician Kamran Tessori.

Mr Tessori was among many candidates whose Senate nomination form was filed by the Dr Sattar-led group.

ECP spokesperson Haroon Shinwari told Dawn in Islamabad that the returning officer (RO) would take a decision on the issue at the time of scrutiny of nomination papers. The RO would decide the matter in the light of the Elections Act, 2017, Election Rules, 2017 and the constitution of the political party concerned, he added.

According to Section 201 (1)(f)(iii, iv and v) of the Elections Act, a political party shall formulate its constitution, by whatever name called, which shall include selection or nomination of party candidates for election to public offices and legislative bodies; resolution of disputes between members and political party, including issues relating to suspension and expulsion of members; and method and manner of amendments in the constitution of the political party.

Irked by the developments, Dr Sattar, who had on Thursday promised to go to the Bahadurabad headquarters at 6pm on Friday to hold a meeting there to hammer out differences, held consultations with party MNAs and MPAs at his house till late in the night and informed them about the prevailing situation.

However, not all parliamentarians belonging to the MQM were in attendance. Sources said that those present in the meeting gave Dr Sattar the mandate to nominate whosoever he wanted to for the Senate seats.

Earlier, in view of the Bahadurabad camp’s claim that they enjoyed the support of “90 per cent” members of the coordination committee, Dr Sattar played what many considered as his trump card when he told the media that those coordination committee members who remained government employees had no right to vote and from now on they would no longer be part of the MQM’s top decision-making body.

At least nine of the over four dozen members of the coordination committee are said to be government employees and all of them are supporting the Bahadurabad camp.

However, in his media talk, Faisal Subzwari clarified that the decision to take back Dr Sattar’s power was taken by a two-thirds majority of the coordination committee, without including those members who were government employees.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2018