Intra-party election of Sattar’s MQM held in PIB Colony

KARACHI: The intra-party election of Dr Farooq Sattar-led faction of Muttahida Qaumi Movement was held simultaneously in Karachi and Hyderabad on Sunday.

In Karachi, the polling was held at the KMC Stadium of PIB Colony near the residence of Dr Farooq Sattar. Some 45 candidates contested for the Rabita Committee whereas 51 candidates contested for central executive council (CEC) of MQM. The Rabita Committee will consist of 35 members while the CEC of the party will comprise 38 members. The one who will get the highest votes in the election for the Rabita Committee will become the convener of MQM.

A large number of people took part in the polling process and the PIB Colony stadium witnessed hustle and bustle of a good number of followers of the party.Leaders of the party supervised the election process while songs and anthems of the MQM were also played on the occasion. Activists of the party raised slogans in favour of Dr Farooq Sattar.

The polling time was from 1pm to 6pm while it was extended by one hour to 7pm. Justice (retd) Khawaja Naveed Ahmed acted as the chief election commissioner for the polling process.

The election staff issued ballot papers to voters of the party after verifying their names from their computerised national identity cards. Dr Farooq Sattar also polled his vote at the stadium’s polling station.

Important candidates for the slots of Rabita Committee were Dr Farooq Sattar, Abdul Waseem, Khawaja Sohail Mansoor, Mohammad Kamran Tessori, Qamar Mansoor, Muhammad Muzammil Qureshi, Ali Raza Abidi, Shahid Pasha. For the CEC, candidates were Shahid Ahmed Khan, Saleem Bandhani, Kamran Akhtar, Saifuddin Khalid, Jamal Ahmed, Zubair Ahmed, and others.

Speaking to the activists of the party on the occasion, Dr Farooq Sattar said that activists of MQM had made history by participating in the intra-party election in large numbers. He said the MQM had started a fresh journey.

He said that constitution of the party was derived from followers of the party as without activists, the Constitution was of no use at all. “Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui has rightly said that it is not the process of division, rather the process of cleansing being carried out in the MQM,” he said. He said that activists of the MQM had in fact failed the feudal lords present inside the party. He said the intra-party election had proved to be a “trailer” of the upcoming general elections of the country.

Meanwhile, the Bahadurabad faction of MQM termed the intra-party polls of the party in the PIB Colony as illegal and unconstitutional.

Speaking at a press conference, Deputy Convener of the Bahadurabad faction of MQM Kanwar Naveed Jameel said that Dr Farooq Sattar was no more the head of the MQM as only the chief of the party could convene a general body meeting of workers of the party. He said that a notice was sent to Dr Farooq Sattar to inform him about the illegal and unconstitutional nature of the intra-party election in the PIB Colony.

He said the intra-party election had been conducted in sheer illegal and ill-advised manner. He claimed that instead of properly registered voters of the party, general public, the Haqiqi faction of MQM, and Pak Sarzaeem Party had been invited to cast votes in the intra-party poll. He said that Dr Farooq Sattar had been trying since long to get hold of the leadership position of the party but all his such attempts were deliberately covered up in order to save unity of the party.

He said that Dr Farooq Sattar had made an illegal attempt to amend the constitution of the party in order to secretly secure dictatorial powers for him to run the party. The Rabita Committee was the supreme body of the party as per its Constitution as the committee had done whatever it could do to save unity and solidarity of the party against all the designs.

Jameel said the Election Commission Pakistan would soon duly recognize Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui as duly chosen new head of the party and he would also be the genuine trustee of the election symbol and flag of the party. He claimed that several TV news channels reported that a single person polled votes multiple times in the illegal intra-party election of the MQM in the PIB Colony. He even claimed that a cobbler sitting on the roadside of PIB Colony was also seen casting his vote in the election. Dr Farooq Sattar sent text messages from his phone to invite people to cast votes in the election.