KARACHI: Disgruntled leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan Dr Farooq Sattar on Friday demanded that a fresh intra-party election be held as soon as possible since the incumbent leader — Federal Minister Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui — and his associates in the coordination committee did not take mandate from party workers after taking leadership from him.

The senior MQM-P leader warned if his demands were not considered he would have no option but to work for the creation of “MQM-Nazriati”.

Dr Sattar, who was until Feb 5 the convener of the MQM-P, was removed from the post by the coordination committee after the party was divided into the PIB and Bahadurabad factions due to differences over award of tickets for the Senate elections.

Threatens to form MQM-Nazriati if demands are not met

Before the July 25 general elections, the two groups, however, ended their differences and Dr Sattar conceded the leadership of Dr Siddiqui since the Islamabad High Court had ruled that the latter was the ‘leader’ and ticket-awarding authority of the MQM-P in accordance with a decision of the election commission.

Dr Sattar contested but lost the general elections from two Karachi National Assembly constituencies — NA-245 and NA-247. On Sept 13, he resigned from the membership of the MQM-P’s coordination committee citing “personal reasons” and announced that he would continue to work as a worker.

The party, being practically run by senior leader Amir Khan as Dr Siddiqui had joined the Imran Khan-led federal cabinet, did not consider Dr Sattar for a by-election on NA-247, which fell vacant after Arif Alvi became the country’s president.

Against this backdrop, Dr Sattar called a news conference here at the Karachi Press Club to share his future course of action as well as the reasons behind his Sept 13 resignation.

“The party has reached the verge of collapse and the situation warrants that the party be reverted back to the Feb 5 position [when he was the convener] to save it from destruction and division,” said Dr Sattar.

He said that he had “accidentally” taken over the leadership of the MQM-P from London-based founder Altaf Hussain on Aug 23, 2016. “Khalid Maqbool and his associates had taken over the party leadership from me on Feb 11, but they have not taken mandate from workers. It is necessary to take fresh mandate from the workers.”

Without naming any individual or institution, Dr Sattar said that he was punished for foiling a plan to merge the MQM-P with the Pak Sarzameen Party. “The powers which were behind the PSP had taken revenge from me for [holding] a press conference on Nov 9, 2017 at my residence,” he said.

He said he contested the July 25 election despite knowing that the party would not be allowed to retain its traditional seats. “Initially, I refused to contest the election, but later I contested on the insistence of Bahadurabad colleagues and to save the party from split.”

He said after the elections, he was completely ignored by the party and the coordination committee and not even consulted before taking any decision.

He said that he was sidelined because he talked about internal accountability, demanded Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar explain the expenditure of “billions of rupees” and asked party leaders to declare their assets.

“I cannot go along with some people in the coordination committee because of an ideological difference,” he said, without mentioning any name. “I have decided to work for the creation of MQM-Nazriati and go to each and every worker and Mohajir if my demands are not considered.”

He said that the MQM-P must get its act together otherwise it would face a disaster in the next local government elections since “plan has been made to take local government majority from them”.

Several former lawmakers, MQM-P workers and office-bearers were also present in the press conference.

Later in the evening, senior MQM-P leader Faisal Subzwari told media that Dr Sattar’s resignation had not been accepted and “the coordination committee in its meeting today decided that we will go to Dr Farooq Sattar to remove all his concerns”.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2018