Bahadurabad is our joint home despite differences: Sattar

MQM-P PIB leader Dr Farooq Sattar addressed a joint press conference with Bahadurabad faction leader Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui at the party's Bahadurabad office Friday night.

The disgruntled leader, who locked horns with the party's Bahadurabad faction over the nominations for Senate elections, was accompanied by his wife and Ali Raza Abidi.

"Bahadurabad is our joint home despite differences," Sattar said. "And all workers in PIB and Bahadurabad are part of Muttahida Qaumi Movement."

He also noted that the two groups shared an ideological bond despite their disagreements.

Khawaja Izharul Hassan excused himself from being part of an arbitration committee, following Sattar's decision to challenge the ECP's ruling on the party's convenership matter in the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

Earlier, during a meeting between Sattar and Siddiqui, the latter stressed that the party's workers should not be divided.

Sources further said that a party meeting chaired by Sattar was held at the party's PIB office before his visit to the Bahadurabad office.

Sattar had remarked that the obstacle from his way had been removed following the IHC's order.

"The ECP had handed over MQM and the kite [the party's electoral symbol] to Bahadurabad but I can visit the Bahadurabad office as the party's leader after the IHC's verdict," he had said.

The conflict

The 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 Amir Khan, Nasreen Jalil, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui among others.

Sattar was elected as the PIB's faction on March 26 after securing 9,433 votes an intra-party poll he had held in Karachi and Hyderabad. He was deposed by the Rabita Committee on February 11.

Appeasement efforts by the Bahadurabad faction bore no fruition and the rift between splinter groups of the party got worse after the Bahadurabad group filed a petition challenging the intra-party elections held by Sattar.

A five-member bench of the ECP, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan, on March 26 had ruled that Sattar could no longer serve as the convener of MQM-P.

A five-member bench of the ECP, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan, announced the brief verdict in the case pertaining to the intra-party dispute on the position of the party convener. The bench also dismissed Sattar's petition challenging the jurisdiction of ECP in the case and nullified the intra-party elections of MQM, in which Sattar was elected as the party chief.

But in a dramatic turn of events, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) dismissed on Thursday the ECP's order after Sattar challenged the order in the IHC on Wednesday.

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