KARACHI: As the two groups of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan have announ­ced that they would hold separate events to mark the 34th foundation day of the party on March 18, Dr Farooq Sattar of the PIB faction offered his rivals in the Bahadurabad group to hold one event outside the Quaid’s mausoleum to send a message of unity to the people.

After the split within the MQM-P that cost the party at least two Senate seats in the March 3 election, the two groups started efforts to solidify their respective positions and in this connection they announced holding separate conventions to observe the party’s foundation day on Sunday.

The Bahadurabad group, led by Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, chose Nishtar Park to hold their event, while the PIB faction first tried to seek permission from local administration to hold their event in Azizabad’s Jinnah Ground and after refusal they announced that their event would be held on Liaquatabad flyover.

Nishtar Park, Liaquatabad flyover chosen as venues by Bahadurabad, PIB factions respectively

However, their infighting forced party loyalist to distance themselves from the two groups as many leaders and workers preferred to stay at home instead of siding with any of the groups.

While the two factions are eyeing the upcoming general election, London-based founder Altaf Hussain in a video message released on early Friday morning hinted at supporting “independent candidates” as he asked all aspirants who wanted to contest the general election as an independent candidate to contact his London secretariat.

Keeping in view the situation, Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Khawaja Izharul Hassan launched a renewed effort to mediate between the two groups. He met Dr Sattar on Friday and urged him to make a united front before the March 18 events.

Dr Sattar later told the media that he gave a proposal to the Bahadurabad group to jointly commemorate the party’s foundation day by holding one event at Bagh-i-Jinnah outside the Quaid’s mausoleum, where only he and Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui would deliver speeches and rest of the coordination committee of the two groups would sit in the audience.

He said that after the event he and Dr Siddiqui could decide who would be part of the coordination committee and how the party would work in future. “If you [Bahadurabad group] respect me and consider me your elder then leave it to me and Khalid Maqbool bhai ... I am sure we will find a way.”

However, he said that he did not get any answer to his proposal as yet.

Dr Sattar had earlier proposed that he was ready to dissolve his 35-member coordination committee provided the Bahadurabad faction also did the same so that he and Bahadurabad convener Dr Siddiqui could sit together to make one unified ad hoc body to run the party.

Also on Friday, senior MQM-P leader Amir Khan of the Bahadurabad group told a workers’ meeting in Nazimabad that the party wanted Dr Sattar to come and run the party again in accordance with its constitution, but “Farooq bhai is insisting on dissolution of the two coordination committees which is beyond our understanding”.

Differences between the two MQM-P factions came to the fore on Feb 5 when Dr Sattar boycotted a meeting of the coordination committee which refused to endorse his favoured candidate Kamran Tessori for a Senate ticket.

Later, the split turned into an open division as the two sides elected Dr Sattar and Dr Siddiqui as their respective conveners. Dr Sattar’s candidate Tessori lost the Senate election, while Bahadurabad group’s Dr Farogh Nasim was the only MQM-P candidate who emerged victorious but with the help of Pakistan Muslim League-Functional’s votes.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2018