KARACHI: The new convener of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, on Friday hinted at the possibility of reconciliation with the deposed party head Dr Farooq Sattar who might be restored to the party’s top position, after the latter agreed to accept the four names proposed by the MQM-P coordination committee for March 3 Senate elections.

“Dr Farooq Sattar bhai I keep this convenership for you...Please come and run the organisation but not beyond its constitution,” the new convener told a workers’ convention called by Dr Siddiqui-led Bahadurabad group in Gulshan-i-Iqbal in the evening.

Earlier, Dr Sattar told a press conference at his PIB Colony residence that he was ready to withdraw the candidates he had fielded for the Senate elections.

Both groups of the MQM-P have fielded a total of 16 candidates for the 12 Senate seats. Dr Sattar asked the Bahadurabad camp to send the four names they had finalised for the Senate polls and he would endorse and announce them as the consensus candidates of both groups. The Bahadurabad group’s candidates are Nasreen Jalil, Dr Farogh Nasim, Aminul Haq and Shabbir Ahmed Qaim Khani.

Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui asks the deposed convener to return and run MQM-P in accordance with party constitution

Dr Sattar said the issue over distribution of Senate tickets had ended but the problem related to the position of party leader and his powers in decision-making still persisted. “I don’t have any ego [problem], as it’s just an issue of self-respect,” he remarked.

He further said he did not want to strengthen the perception that the Senate seats were the bone of contention between the groups.

Terming the workers’ convention of the Bahadurabad group “unconstitutional”, he alleged that his opponents had approached the Election Commission of Pakistan on Thursday but they did not get a stay order from the commission against the intra-party elections to be held on Feb 18. He claimed that he was removed by the coordination committee with a two-thirds majority, but the ECP retained him as party convener and the MQM-P as a registered party under his name.

Later in the evening, the Bahadurabad group reciprocated the gesture by inviting Dr Sattar to join them back. But the group also unanimously adopted a resolution, declaring the meeting at PIB Colony — in which Dr Sattar dissolved the coordination committee and announced intra-party elections — illegal and void.

Another resolution said Dr Siddiqui was the consensus convener of the MQM and that the party would be run on the basis of its constitution and principles.

Meanwhile, MQM spokesman Aminul Haq welcomed Dr Sattar’s announcement about Senate candidates and said the coordination committee would discuss the issue on Friday night before announcing a decision.

Differences within the MQM-P had surfaced on Feb 5 over giving a Senate ticket to Dr Sattar’s favoured candidate Kamran Tessori. The events led to the dismissal of Dr Sattar as the party convener by the coordination committee. In a tit-for-tat reaction, Dr Sattar dissolved the committee and announced holding intra-party elections on Feb 18.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2018