Bahadurabad contacts as Sattar challenges ECP’s decision

Naimat Khan

KARACHI: Hours after Dr Farooq Sattar challenged in Islamabad High Court the election commission of Pakistan’s decision to remove him of post, senior leader from the Bahadurabad faction of Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan and Sindh lawmaker Faisal Subzwari contacted his former chief, Dr Farooq Sattar, and offered him 40 percent representation in the Rabita Committee.

Farooq Sattar, however, refused to accept the overture and insisted that fifty percent representation in the decision making body should be given to the PIB faction, he leads.

A dispute between party members over nominations for the upcoming Senate elections had earlier resulted in the emergence of splinter groups – Dr Farooq Sattar led PIB Colony faction and the Bahadurabad group consisting of Subzwari, Amir Khan, Nasreen Jalil, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and others.

The offer came a day after a five-member bench of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in the case pertaining to the intra-party dispute on the position of the party convener ruled that Dr Sattar will no longer serve as the convener of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).

Subzwari expressed his desire to meet the party’s PIB chief at his residence along with a delegation of the Bahadurabad group members; Sattar declined the request and insisted that the meeting will be possible after the agreement between both factions on ‘negotiation formula’.

Earlier, on Wednesday the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM-P) leader Dr Farooq Sattar submitted a petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) challenging Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) order to remove him as the convener of the party.

The ECP on Monday had removed Sattar from the position of 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, had 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 Bahadur¬abad — a rival faction of the Dr Sattar-led PIB group.

A day earlier a report claim that supporters of Dr Farooq Sattar had advised him to form a new party if he does not contest the ECP’s decision on intra-party elections.

An advisory meeting chaired by Dr Farooq Sattar was held in PIB Colony in which two suggestions were put forward.

Sattar was advised to appeal against the ruling of the Election Commission of Pakistan at the Supreme Court.

MQM-P leaders advised Sattar to form a new party by the name of ‘MQM-Pakistan 86’ if he did not intend on appealing against the decision of the ECP.