F.P. Report
KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) suffered a major setback on Sunday as its one more leader and Deputy Mayor of Karachi Arshad Vohra bid the party adieu and joined Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP).
Addressing a press conference alongside PSP president Anis QaimKhani at Pakistan House, Vohra announced joining the Mustafa Kamal’s PSP.
Vohra said many big names, including MNAs, associated with the MQM-P were willing to ditch MQM-P to join Kamal-led PSP, adding that he did not join the party under any kind of pressure.
Offering apology for failing to serve the public, he said, he preferred to relinquish his post if he could not keep the promises he had made to his voters.
Referring to MQM-P leaders’ hue and cry over limited resources and powers, Vohra said they could still have delivered despite finite resources.
The PSP president said if Dr Farooq Sattar had moral standing, he along with his party men should resign from membership of the provincial and national assemblies as a large number of leaders associated with his party were ready to join the PSP.
He was referring to Dr Sattar’s warning last Sunday that the lawmakers of his party would resign, if they were coerced into changing their allegiance.
If MQM-P legislators resign, the PSP will field its candidates in the by-elections on the vacated seats, he further said. He said the party had rejected the provisional results of the census 2017.
A day earlier, MQM-P head Dr Farooq Sattar had lamented that his party activists and leaders were being forced to change their allegiance.
Taking a swipe at PSP, he said the party was formed to dry-clean outlaws. Referring to a MQM member from North Nazimabad town, Sohail Qureshi, joining PSP, he said Qureshi was forced to ditch his old party.
Vohra is an industrialist and a former chairman of SITE Association. He is a chemical engineer with a PhD in textile technology from the UK.
He was elected Member Provincial Assembly of Sindh on May 2013. He resigned from his post after he was nominated Deputy Mayor of Karachi from MQM. He was elected Deputy Mayor of Karachi on August 24, 2016 and took oath on August 30, 2016.
On the occasion Qaimkhani said that Vohra would now be seen as a culprit by Dr Farooq Sattar-led political party.
