ISLAMABAD/KARACHI: The Elec­tion Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday removed Dr Farooq Sattar from the position of Mut­tahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) convener by accepting the challenge to his election and rejected his plea that the ECP had no jurisdiction to adjudicate upon internal matters of the party.

A five-member bench, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza, annulled the intra-party elections of the MQM-P held under Dr Sattar’s leadership that he claimed to have won with a huge margin.

The petitions assailing his position had been filed by Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and Kanwar Naveed Jameel, leaders of MQM-P Bahadur­abad — a rival faction of Dr Sattar-led PIB group — that met in Karachi to review the situation after the ECP decision and invited Dr Sattar to work with them under their group’s convener Mr Siddiqui.

The commission also accepted a petition challenging the resolution passed at an “emergency general workers’ meeting” called by Dr Sattar last month. At the convention when he asked the participants through a resolution if they would endorse the coordination committee’s decision to remove him from the position of the convener, the workers had replied in the negative.

Bahadurabad group invites him to work under Khalid Maqbool; Sattar calls it a ‘dark verdict’

Dr Sattar had earlier this month challenged the ECP’s jurisdiction to hear petitions filed by the MQM-Bahadurabad faction involving internal matters of the party. On Feb 27, the ECP gave two days to Dr Sattar-led PIB faction to submit replies to the petitions filed against it.

One of the petitions requested the ECP to replace him with Mr Siddiqui in its record, as Dr Sattar had been removed from the position of MQM-P convener by a two-thirds majority of the party’s Rabita Committee. The other petition challenged the Feb 18 intra-party elections called by Dr Sattar. The Bahadur­abad faction that had elected Mr Siddiqui as the MQM-P convener had boycotted the exercise.

Following the judgement, Dr Sattar told the media that the ECP decision would be remembered as a ‘dark verdict’. He ter­med the judgement “illegal and unconstitutional” and said the commission had never issued judgements on intra-party disputes in the past.

He said the “managed” ECP verdict was part of a larger conspiracy to crush the MQM-Pakistan and its symbol of kite ahead of the 2018 general elections. He said the alleged conspiracy was not just about ‘minus-Altaf’ formula but was aimed at crushing the entire party to distribute its votes among other parties.

“I have been punished for standing against MQM foun­der Altaf Hussain on Aug 23 [2016],” said Dr Sattar while referring to the day when he announced parting ways with Mr Hussain over his incendiary speech, “and for standing alongside Pakis­tan, Consti­tution and the Pakistani state.”

He claimed he was also punished for his Nov 9, 2017 press conference in which he had announced the end of an uneasy alliance with the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) that both parties had suggested was brokered by the establishment.

While speaking to reporters after the verdict, MQM-PIB leader Ali Raza Abidi said the ruling was “injustice” with the Sattar-led group. He said he would urge Dr Sattar to challenge the verdict because the ECP was a “repository of information and not a trial court”. He said the ECP, which could not hold a trial, did not have the jurisdiction to pass such judgements.

Earlier, rifts in the MQM-P had emerged on Feb 5 over the distribution of party tickets to candidates for the March 3 Senate elections. The party split into two groups — one led by Sattar and the other by senior leader Amir Khan — and both sides took extreme actions against each other.

The Bahadurabad group ousted Dr Sattar from the post of convener with a two-thirds majority and in a tit-for-tat reaction Sattar held a workers’ convention the same day, dissolved the coordination committee and announced intra-party elections. On Feb 18, Dr Sattar was elected the party convener after securing over 9,000 votes in the intra-party elections.

Bahadurabad group invites Dr Sattar again

After the ECP decision, the Bahadurabad group’s coordination committee met in Karachi to review the situation. The meeting was presided over by senior leader Amir Khan, as convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui was in Islamabad.

According to a statement, the meeting decided to invite Dr Sattar again to work together in order to strengthen the party.

A source privy to the meeting said it was decided that a representative delegation would be sent to Dr Sattar’s residence in PIB Colony for bringing the estranged leader to the party’s Bahadurabad headquarters.

The source, however, maintained that Dr Siddiqui would remain the convener of the coordination committee even if Dr Sattar decided to return.

Later, senior MQM-P leader Faisal Subzwari told reporters that the party had suffered serious losses since Feb 5 and there was a need to be united since “we all are from the same party and if it exists we exist”.

He said the coordination committee decided to invite all workers, office-bearers, elected representatives — who were either confused due to infighting or in the Dr Sattar-led PIB group — to return and work together since the MQM’s name, its tri-coloured flag and election symbol kite was with the party whose headquarters was in Bahadurabad.

Accompanied by other party leaders, Mr Subzwari said that convener Dr Siddiqui was in Islamabad and after his return to the city “we will sit again” to decide the future course of action.

“As we are inviting workers and office-bearers, we will also approach Dr Farooq Sattar bhai personally,” he said. “We will not accept any division.”

On March 18, he said, Dr Sattar himself had announced that he would accept the decision of the Election Commission. “However, no one can stop anyone to approach courts,” he said when asked to comment on Dr Sattar’s assertion in Islamabad that he would challenge the ECP decision in courts.

Answering a question about Kamran Tessori, Mr Subzwari said the coordination committee had removed him from the party’s top decision-making forum and then suspended him and this decision was still in place. “I have no knowledge whether the party is reviewing its decision regarding Kamran Tessori bhai.”

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2018