DADU, Feb 4: The national congress of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) has suspended the membership of senior party leaders Abdul Wahid Arisar, Serai Qurban Khuhawar and Shafi Karnani for three months and expelled senior activist Riaz Chandio from the party.

The suspended leaders who were absent from the national congress rejected the decision describing the gathering as illegal. They threatened to challenge their suspension.

The party members took the decision at a meeting at the shrine of the founder of Jeay Sindh Tehrik G. M. Syed in Sann on Saturday night. The meeting presided over by JSQM Chairman Basheer Khan Qureshi and attended by Niaz Kalani, Sagar Hanif Burdi, Faqir Imdad, Mohammad Rahimoon and pro-Basheer members removed Shafi Karnani, Ali Hassan, Sattar Hakro, Aslam Pathan, Ghulam Rasool and Hafiz Azad Hakro from national congress and named Khadim Rajpar and Naeem Mandhro as new members.

Mr Qureshi said that Mr Arisar, Serai Qurban Khuhawar, Shafi Mohammad Karnani and Riaz Chandio created rifts in the party by levelling allegations against party leaders and activists from time to time. The meeting also decided to announce new organisers of Jeay Sindh Students Federation.

But Mr Arisar did not accept the decisions of the meeting as legal because he said that only 120 of 280 national congress members had attended the meeting making the number less than the quorum.

He said that he did not attend the meeting because had support of majority of members. He said that he and senior members had always slammed Mr Qureshi’s illegal acts and the suspension of their membership was a reaction to their absence from the national congress.

He said that he would challenge the decision but would not form a new party.

Riaz Chandio said that it was a wrong decision taken by an illegal session of national congress as a large number of members did not attend it, he said.