KARACHI: Although the Bahadurabad group of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan had expelled disgruntled leader Dr Farooq Sattar from the party, the relationship between the two sides dipped to a new low on Monday when the former convener was warned that “civil and criminal actions” could be instituted against him if he failed to offer an unconditional apology to the party.

The warning came through a legal notice sent to Dr Sattar on behalf of MQM-P’s deputy convener Kanwar Naveed Jameel.

Dr Sattar, who was in Lahore on Monday, did not offer any immediate comment. However, he told media there that his “own people” were not listening to him and they were also expelling those party workers who stood by him. He has been busy contacting like-minded people and meeting civil society, politicians, etc. Last week, he met Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi chief Afaq Ahmed, but his spokesperson described it as a “chance meeting”.

In the legal notice, Kanwar Naveed’s lawyer stated that it was in response to the “baseless, malicious and defamatory remarks” made in a press conference on Nov 10 in which Dr Sattar “malafidely intended to injure” his client’s reputation.

Dr Sattar was asked to “immediately render an unconditional apology” to Kanwar Naveed and MQM-P and to pay damages to the tune of Rs500 million within 14 days.

He was warned that his client “reserves the right to institute civil and criminal actions” against him if he failed to apologise in the given time.

Previously, many politicians, including Pak Sarzameen Party chairman Mustafa Kamal, had also levelled serious allegations against the MQM-P, its founder Altaf Hussain, Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar and other senior leaders but the party did not initiate civil or criminal actions against them.

Differences between the two MQM-P groups — Bahadurabad and PIB — had surfaced on Feb 5 when Dr Sattar left the meeting of the coordination committee after it refused to allot a Senate ticket to his favoured candidate Kamran Tessori.

Last month, Dr Sattar had announced formation of an organisation restoration committee (ORC) and appointed himself as the patron in-chief of the new body parallel to the MQM-P’s coordination committee.

The Bahadurabad group finally struck back and expelled Dr Sattar from the party asking workers not to contact the former Karachi mayor.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2018