I don’t want to become Mamnoon Hussain, says Farooq Sattar

Naimat Khan

KARACHI: Drama continued for yet another day as a delegation of MQM-P leaders from Bahadurabad office visited PIB Colony in order to appease Farooq Sattar, who termed the letter by Rabita Committee to election commission of Pakistan as a rebellion.

“If I don’t want to become Altaf Hussain, I also don’t want to become Mamnoon Hussain,” Sattar told media while welcoming Salman Mujahid, the party MNA who rejoined MQM Pak here on Saturday.

“The Rabita Committee not only handed over my powers to Deputy Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui but they also crossed the limits by writing letter to the election commission of Pakistan,” Sattar said, before his meeting with Amir Khan led delegation kicked off for reconciliation.

MNA Salman Mujahid Baloch on Saturday once again joined the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), nearly two months after he joined the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP. Baloch had joined PSP in December last year, about two months after being expelled from MQM-P over alleged violation of party discipline. He was the first MQM-P leader who had spilled the beans on the party’s internal rifts by confirming the existence of two groups within the party.

Baloch rejoined MQM-P after a meeting with party chief Dr Farooq Sattar on Saturday, at a time when the party is experiencing a deadlock between the same two groups that Baloch had lifted the curtain on.

The Rabita Committee continued its efforts to convince Sattar but its attempts remained futile. The impasse continued overnight as both factions held press conferences, one after another.

Scheduling a general workers’ meeting for 4 PM on Sunday, Sattar said he had extended the “deadline” and informed the other faction that he would be sending a show cause notice today.

“It is a constitutional war now,” Sattar noted, adding that he would also pen a letter today to ask the Rabita Committee to rescind their letter to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

“This letter is an indication of ‘no confidence’ in me,” he claimed, going on to make further assertions that the Committee attempted to “snatch away my rights without informing me” and that he was “stabbed in the back”.

Reasoning that the whole fiasco was created “because I don’t have the kind of ‘stick’ that the MQM founder used to deploy”, Sattar appealed to all the party workers to come out Sunday and “save the party”.

He also hinted that a change in the party’s top-tier leadership. “I will also be making a decision about my leadership in the same meeting.” “I cannot comprehend how Kamran Tessori has this kind of importance,” Faisal Sabzwari said as he spoke to reporters. He added that Sattar had told Rabita Committee members the party would not take part in the Senate elections if Tessori did not contest.

During the news conference, Sabzwari maintained that Sattar remained the party chief; however, all authority rests with the Committee. “It is the Rabita Committee which would hand over authority to the convener or party chief,” he added. When asked about the decision to write a letter to the ECP, Sabzwari responded, “This decision was taken when we were unable to meet Farooq bhai (brother) at his residence last night.”

The rift between PIB Colony and Bahadurabad factions intensified after the Rabita Committee wrote the letter to the ECP in an attempt to wrest authority from Sattar. The letter informed the ECP that the authority to issue party tickets rests with the Rabita Committee, not the party chief.

The letter also stated that as per Section 19(a) of the party’s constitution, the authority to nominate candidates for election rests with the Rabita Committee. It further adds that the Rabita Committee had in its session finalised the names of candidates for the Senate elections.