Sattar calls MQM fiasco ‘minus two’, points at Musharraf

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan's (MQM-P) Chief Farooq Sattar said on Monday that the infighting within the party points towards a ‘minus two’ formula, adding that the party members are playing into someone else's hands.

The MQM-P chief was speaking on Geo News programme ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kaay Saath’, where he said that people with great difficulty accepted the ‘minus one’ formula after August 22.

Sattar claimed that certain party members are rallying behind former president Pervez Musharraf and want him as the party's chief.

While responding to the general grievance against him regarding Kamran Tessori, the MQM-P leader said that he was not alone in supporting the party member.

Sattar, indirectly sending a message to party member Barrister Farogh Naseem, asked him to stop giving recommendations to party members. “Mohajirs do not need further divisions,” he said.

The MQM-P leader said that he will remain the party's convener and further added that 25 MPAs are from the party stand alongside him.

He reiterated that he was not summoned to party sessions.

Meanwhile, MQM leader Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said the sessions will be called, although it is not a competition.

He added that Kamran Tessori is enough to ruin the party.

Earlier, the embattled party chief had announced that he was dissolving the party's Rabita Committee, hours after members of the coordination committee at the party's Bahadurabad office said he was no longer the convener of the party.

The latest episode of infighting between two factions of the party started over the issue of distribution of party tickets for next month's Senate elections, with the Bahadurabad group opposing Sattar's nomination of relative newcomer Kamran Tessori over seasoned party leader.

But, speaking to the media on Sunday, Sattar said the issue was not over distribution of Senate tickets but a conspiracy had been hatched to 'seize control' of the party.

The dispute between the PIB Colony and Bahadurabad factions had emerged on February 6 after both parties had taken different positions on the nominations of party members for the upcoming Senate elections. 

'Sattar breached Rabita Committee's trust' 

The party's coordination committee had earlier announced the decision to remove Sattar as the party's convener.

"The Rabita Committee has decided to remove Dr Farooq Sattar as the party's convener," senior party leader Kanwar Naveed Jameel had announced in a press conference on Sunday evening.

"Farooq Sattar breached the Rabita Committee's trust," Jameel had said, alleging that the former party chief had changed MQM-P's constitution without bringing it into the knowledge of the central coordination committee.