KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan leader Dr Farooq Sattar of the PIB group on Sunday announced that he would go to the party’s Bahadurabad headquarters on Monday (today) as the intra-party elections held earlier in the day had given him “a fresh mandate to run the party”.

However, his opponents in the coordination committee, commonly known as Bahadurabad group, rejected what they called so-called intra-party polls and announced that Dr Sattar would be welcomed at the party headquarters only if he withdrew his recent actions.

After a split within the MQM-P over distribution of party tickets for the March 3 Senate election that led to Dr Sattar’s dismissal as convener, the seasoned politician had announced intra-party elections, but his rival group, which elected Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui in his place, boycotted the exercise, saying Dr Sattar had no right to do so.

However, polling was held in KMC stadium in PIB Colony, Karachi, and at MQM-P zone office in Hyderabad.

A total of 45 candidates were in the run for 35 coordination committee seats and 51 candidates contested the election for 38 seats in the central executive council.

Prominent among the candidates are Dr Sattar, Kamran Tessori, MNA Ali Raza Abidi, Qamar Mansoor, Shahid Pasha, Syed Waseem Hussain, Sohail Mashhadi and Sabir Qaimkhani from Hyderabad.

Bahadurabad group rejects the move as ‘unconstitutional, illegal’

The candidate who got maximum votes would be declared elected as the party convener followed by deputy convener, etc.

Party sources said that Dr Sattar’s election as the party convener was a foregone conclusion.

Talking to party workers, Dr Sattar said that he would launch an accountability drive within the party and would oust those who had a feudal mindset.

Earlier, MQM-P leader Kanwar Naveed Jameel of the Bahadurabad group told a press conference that the so-called intra-party elections being held in PIB Colony were “unconstitutional” and “illegal”.

He said that MQM-P workers did not participate in the intra-party polls and, therefore, common people as well as activists of the Pak Sarzameen Party and the Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi were invited to cast vote ignoring the fact that only those registered with the Election Commission of Pakistan as workers of a particular party could vote.

He asked what the merit of Kamran Tessori was that his name was put on the ballot paper after Dr Sattar’s.

Mr Jameel said that for the past one year the whole coordination committee had tried time and again to make Dr Sattar understand that his wrong decisions were damaging the party. He accused Dr Sattar of illegally amending the party constitution and meeting rival PSP leaders, including Anis Kaimkhani, at the house of Mr Tessori.

“Farooq Sattar Bhai has divided the whole nation and organisation just for the sake of his personal interests and ego,” he said, adding: “Our voters are with the coordination committee and convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui...the vote bank is not divided.”

Also on Sunday, the Bahadurabad group announced that it had dissolved its Hyderabad zonal committee.

The decision was taken after a three-member delegation, led by senior leader Amir Khan, reached Hyderabad and tried to convince the city chapter to not side with Dr Sattar. But, the local leadership decided to take part in the intra-party polls of Dr Sattar.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2018