PIB Colony, Bahadurabad leaders meet a day after MQM-P reunion to discuss May 5 gathering

The leaders of the PIB Colony group and Bahadurabad group of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan met on Thursday to discuss the arrangements for their May 5 public meeting that they claim will give a “befitting reply” to Pakistan Peoples Party.

The PIB Colony group, led by Farooq Sattar, and the Bahadurabad group, led by Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, met at the party’s Bahardurabad office, a day after the two factions announced to reunite ahead of the gathering scheduled to be held at Tanki Ground, Liaquatabad.

The PPP had on April 29 held a large public meeting in the same arena in an MQM stronghold, after a gap of 44 years. Its chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had lashed out in the speech at the MQM-P, claiming that PPP would rid Karachi of its “Mustaqil Qaumi Musibat (Permanent National Problem).”

This ultimately prompted the MQM-P groups to revive their lobbying for a reunion, apparently getting an understanding of the damage the split had caused them. The two groups publicly surfaced on February 5 following disagreements in the allotting of tickets for Senate elections and since then the party has lost three seats in the Senate and nearly a dozen lawmakers to the Pak Sarzameen Party and PPP, let alone the party workers.

Talking to media after their meeting on Thursday, Sattar said that now they will go into the field together. Responding to a question about the infighting, he read an Urdu couplet: “Kon Kehta He Hum Tum Mein Larai Hogi, Yeh Khabar Kisi Dushman Ne Urai Hogi (Who says that we fight, a foe must have lied).”

MQM-P Bahadurabad leader Amir Khan said they should take the party forward, leaving behind “the bitterness of the past.” He added that MQM was one and will remain one. But he also asserted that Bahadurabad was the party’s headquarters.

“We have sat together for a good cause. It will benefit the Mohajirs and Karachi,” he said, hoping that the reunion was once for all. Khan said Sattar will now remain in Bahadurabad with them and resume his responsibilities in the party.

Commenting on the split, Khan said that whenever MQM faces hard times, it becomes more powerful than before and rises. He criticised the PPP and said that its manifesto was loot and corruption only.

Among its other causes, the split had also occurred because of the tension between Sattar and Khan. Sattar on several occasions had criticised Khan and in his recent news conference had alleged that he had orchestrated murders and arrests of MQM workers. Sattar had further said that because of Khan the two groups could not work together.

When asked which position he would be assuming after the reunion, Sattar said, “When you have a bigger goal, like the integrity of Mohajirs, the seats and titles don’t matter.” He has been removed as the convener of the MQM-P by the Bahadurabad group. Siddiqui leads the party now.