Tessori's Senate ticket splits MQM-P

KARACHI: The senior leaders of MQM-P revolted against their chief Farooq Sattar over the nomination of candidates for the Senate elections and suspended the membership of Kamran Tessori for six months.

As per the details, both Farooq Sattar and Amir Khan disagreed with each other on the party candidates, in a meeting held at Bahadurabad office earlier in the day.

The session, which was attended by senior leadership of MQM-P, including Kanwar Naveed Jamil, Waseem Akhtar, Nasreen Jalil, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and others, ended in a chaos.

Disagreement on Tessori

While talking to media at Bahdurabad, Senior MQM-P leader   Khalid Maqbool siddiqui, on behalf of the Rabita Committee (coordination committee) members who were present at the occasion,  announced the decision to suspend  the deputy  convener Kamran Tessori for six months, adding that  Farooq Sattar is still the convener of the party.

In his presser flanked by Waseem Akhtar,Faisal Sazbwari and Amir Khan,  Siddiqui revealed that coordination committee of MQM-P had recommended six names for the Senate elections, included Nasreen Jalil, Farogh Nasim, Aminul Haque, Shabbir Qaimkhani, Amir Khan, and Kamran Tessori, He added that Sattar wanted two senior leaders to sacrifice, ensuring Tessori's seat in the Upper House of Parliament.

Though both the leaders were agreed on Farogh Naseem, Nasreen Jalil, Aminul Haque, there was a difference on the candidacy of Kamran Tessori.

Siddiqui said that 90 percent members of  coordination committee have shown their reservations over the name of Tessori for Senate's seat.

Following disagreement, Sattar and his supporters left Bahadurabad for the MQM-P chief’s residence in PIB Colony.

The supporters of Sattar also chanted slogans in his favour while the supporters of Amir Khan remained with him at the meeting’s venue.

Soon after arriving at his residence in PIB Colony, Sattar  openly disagreed with the decisions  taken in the earlier meeting  held at Bahadurabad,  adding that the meeting was unconstitutional and the violation of party discipline. He announced to suspend all the participants of the meeting and said their fate will be decided in today’s workers convention.    

In his address, he also sought MQM-Haqiqi chief Afaq Ahmed's support to strengthen and keep united the  'Muhajir' community. He also urged PSP leaders and their workers to support MQM-P in Senate election for the sake of  Karachiites, adding that PSP workers would positively respond to his request and  will  attend today's meeting. 

During his address at PIB Colony, Sattar  convened a meeting of MQM-P general workers today   3:00pm  at MC ground  to decide the future strategy to tackle the ongoing crisis in the party.

Sources said that Farooq Sattar wants to send Tessori in  the Senate, while Amir Khan and some other  leaders have put their faith upon the name of Shabbir Qaimkhani.

Sattar claimed that Shabir Qaimkhani had left the final decision upon him, so he decided in favour of Tessori.

MQM-P chief also urged the party workers to give him mandates to take decisions as they  had  given to their founder leader  in past, adding that  Rabita Committee   used to share their opinions, while the final decision was made by the  founder. He further said that he would not continue without having the mandate of  making decision.

After Sattar's presser, Amir Khan and other senior leaders of MQM-P have also called a separate Rabita Committee meeting which would be held today at 02:00pm in Bahadurabad.

Who is Kamran Tessori

Kamran Tessori is a former member of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F), who joined MQM-P last year and quickly rose to prominence. He was also nominated to contest the PS-114 by-election for MQM-P against the Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP) Saeed Ghani but lost by a big margin.

Rift  to hurt Karachi

According to some senior leaders within the party, unity in their ranks will help Karachi prosper  as  MQM-P split can be dangerous and would benefit to opponents, adding that Karachiites are already suffering because of the rift between Sindh administration, and the elected representatives of the local government.

Senate Election

It is pertinent to note that four out of eight MQM-P senators, including Col (R) Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, Dr. Mohammad Farogh Naseem, Maulana Tanveer-ul-Haq Thanvi, and Nasreen Jalil will retire next month.

The MQM-P will contest for 12 Senate seats from Sindh, where it is the second-largest party, enjoying the support of 50 MPAs in the 168-member provincial assembly. The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has 94 lawmakers in the provincial assembly.