ISLAMABAD / KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) MNA Nabil Gabol submitted on Tuesday his resignation to the National Assembly Secretariat, citing “personal reasons”.

Sources close to Mr Gabol told Dawn that the MNA had also decided to quit the party and would soon make an announcement in this regard.

“I have submitted my resignation as a member of the National Assembly as I was a misfit in the MQM,” said Mr Gabol, indicating clearly that he had made up his mind about quitting the party.

Party leader says he wasn’t devoting enough time to his constituency

Talking to reporters outside Parliament House after tendering his resignation, Mr Gabol denied reports that he had been forced to quit the assembly by the party leadership.

“I am not a sheep that can be forced to do anything,” he said in response to a question. He, however, said that he had no differences with the MQM leadership.

He said that he was considered to be a “misguided missile” in the party and was, therefore, “unfit for an organised party like the MQM”.

Mr Gabol, who had joined the MQM just two months before the general elections in May 2013 after quitting the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), said he would announce his future plans at a news conference in Islamabad on Wednesday.

“I am from a political family and have been in politics for 27 years. I will continue to be in politics,” he added.

On the other hand, MQM leader and former MNA Haider Abbas Rizvi, when contacted, claimed that Mr Gabol had been advised by the party leadership to resign from the National Assembly as he was unable to devote adequate time to the people of his constituency.

Quoting the official spokesperson, Mr Rizvi said that due to some “personal reasons, Mr Gabol was unable to provide necessary time and attention to his constituency to resolve public issues”.

Mr Rizvi said that no one should be surprised by Mr Gabol’s resignation as four to five party MNAs and senators had recently quit their seats on the orders of the party leadership. He said the MQM had awarded the ticket to Mr Gabol from the home constituency of party chief Altaf Hussain and the people wanted to see their representative spending more time with them. He, however, said that Mr Gabol was still a party member.

But sources close to Mr Gabol confirmed that the MNA had decided to quit the MQM as “he considers his decision to join the MQM a big mistake”. They, however, said Mr Gabol would take some time to decide about his future plan. They claimed that he had offers to join the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) as well as to return to the PPP.

In Karachi, the MQM claimed that Nabil Gabol quit his National Assembly seat after the party had asked him to do so.

An MQM spokesman said in a statement that Mr Gabol had resigned because of personal and domestic reasons.

“Due to some personal reasons Mr Gabol was unable to devote necessary time and attention to his constituency to resolve public issues,” the spokesman said, adding that the party had advised him to resign from the seat and Mr Gabol had submitted his resignation to the NA speaker.

Mr Gabol had won the seat by securing 137,874 votes against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Amir Sharjeel who got 31,875 votes.

Mr Gabol, who had represented the PPP from the party’s traditional Lyari seat in the National and the provincial assemblies for nearly two decades, quit the party after reports that the leadership was considering launching party chairman Bilawal Bhutto in the election from its Lyari stronghold.

He had resigned as the minister of state for Ports and Shipping during the PPP government in 2012, complaining that he had been “sidelined” by then-president and party co-chairman, Asif Zardari.

Meanwhile, the coordination committee of the MQM appointed Nadeem Nusrat as the senior deputy convener at the party’s London secretariat.

A statement issued on Tuesday said that Mr Nusrat had held the same position until September 2014 when he sought leave from party chief Altaf Hussain and left London for the United States for medical treatment. Now, his doctors had allowed him to work.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2015

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