Convener-ship issue: MQM-P factions await IHC's verdict

Both factions of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) have failed to reach an agreement on who will hold the convener-ship of the party despite several meetings and backdoor negotiations while they wait for Islamabad High Court's verdict to settle the matter. Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) removed Dr Farooq Sattar as convener of the party on March 26, but Islamabad High Court suspended the decision two days later and restored Sattar as the party convener.
The MQM-P leaders developed differences reportedly over the nomination of candidates for Senate elections splintering into two factions - Bahadurabad group led by Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and PIB group led by Dr Farooq Sattar. Islamabad High Court has fixed April 11 as next date of hearing for the case and leaders of both factions are awaiting the court decision.
Talking to Business Recorder, MQM-P MNA Ali Raza Abidi who is aligned with Farooq Sattar group said that all efforts by friends and sympathizers of the party to get the issues resolved between the two groups have failed.
"The two groups are not budging an inch from their position. Neither Farooq Sattar nor Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui are willing to give up the convener-ship voluntarily," he said.
Abidi said the court verdict would determine who was leader of the party and both the factions despite contacts with each other were towards the court to resolve the matter. He said Kamran Tessori - an apparent bone of contention between the two groups - had parted ways with Dr Farooq Sattar but even then the Bahadurabad group was not willing to accept Sattar as convener of the party.
"Kamran Tessori was just an excuse, the real issue for the Bahadurabad group is getting the party leadership," he said, adding Sattar visited the dissident group on Thursday without Tessori in an attempt to mend the fences but in vain.
As for the MQM-P's vote bank in urban centres of Sindh province, he admitted that the ongoing tussle between the two MQM factions would result in loss of the party's vote bank in upcoming general elections.
"The group that is given the Kite (election symbol of the MQM-P) by the election commission may be able to get some votes," he said, "and that's why we are struggling to patch up soured relations between both the two groups." The departure of Dr Farooq Sattar and Pak Sarzameen Party chief Mustafa Kamal to Dubai from the same flight has also fueled speculations amid the leadership crisis within the MQM-P. Leaders of both the parties, however, declined to comment on it despite repeated contacts.