HYDERABAD: Estran­ged Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Dr Farooq Sattar has said that he would soon start contacting political and non-political figures for the establishment of a new entity — Muttahida Qaumi Council/Forum — to restore the MQM of 1986 which comprised Afaq Ahmed Khan, Anis Qaimkhani and Mustafa Kamal.

“The move is aimed at resolving issues of urban Sindh with the same unity that was MQM’s hallmark,” he added.

Dr Sattar was speaking to the media after condoling the recent death of noted academician Prof Idris Khan, in Latifabad on Monday.

Prof Khan, who studied in Govt College Kali Mori and was appointed as a lecturer in 1970, died on Thursday. Considered by the local teaching community as ‘teacher of teachers’, he had also served as director of colleges, Hyderabad, and retired in 2001.

Dr Farooq Sattar spoke to the media at length about the issues relating to the MQM-P and on political situation in the country.

He reiterated his determination to reunite the MQM-P and “make it corruption-free” ensuring that its leaders submit their assets in the ‘court of workers’.

He said that current performance of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf proved that it was no longer the ‘third option’ for people as was being projected by the party. He believed that like the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), PTI would also carry a similar baggage of allegations being carried by the two major parties.

He observed that PTI’s way of governance was not much different from its predecessors. He called for across the board accountability in which justice should be seen to have been done.

Dr Sattar said that plunder could be eradicated from Pakistan if dynastic politics and politics of electables was put to an end. Unfortunately, he said, PTI was not doing this as electables, and feudal lords were still being inducted in governance.

He said that the ORC (organisation restoration committee) he had founded after his expulsion from the party wanted intra party election. He stressed that until and unless parties introduced a check and balance, corruption could not be eliminated.

He labelled MQM-P leaders as ‘usurpers’, and said that in collusion with the coordination committee members, they sabotaged his attempt to ensure such accountability. He said everyone must face accountability be it he himself, Amir Khan or Kanwar Naveed. “They will have to disclose their assets before workers,” he added.

Dr Sattar said he would move court against termination of his basic membership as well as against judgement on his party position but nobody could stop him from voting for the MQM or raising its slogan. “MQM’s soul is with me and the body is [with] Bahadurabad,” he said.

He said the way PTI lost LG by-poll on Sunday in an area falling within the NA-245 constituency, showed that its win in the July 25 elections was facilitated.

He observed that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) kept sleeping for eight years and become active only in the last two years. He asked why didn’t the PML-N and PPP make NAB autonomous and independent and its law law effective.

“They (PML-N and PPP) are reaping what they had sown; their governments were indeed plagued by corruption,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2018