MQM-P (PIB group) may boycott upcoming polls

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan's (MQM-P) group led by Dr Farooq Sattar has taken a back seat and may boycott the general elections if Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) fails to restore Sattar as party head.
Sheikh Salahuddin, MQM-P legislator who is supporting Farooq Sattar, told Business Recorder that Bahadurabad group of the party led by Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui is not willing to accept Sattar as convener of the party. He said the PIB group supporting Sattar is waiting for the decision of Islamabad High Court and Election Commission on their petitions regarding his convenership of the party.
"All our efforts to reconcile with the Bahadurabad group have failed," he said, adding that they are now waiting for the decision of the court and election commission.
He said that if the election commission restores Farooq Sattar as convener of the party, then they will give party tickets to candidates for general elections and would also actively participate in the polls. Salahuddin said that his faction of the party was also waiting for the caretaker government in Sindh as they think the situation may improve in their favour after installation of a "neutral setup" in the province.
"We know differences within the party are costing us heavily in terms of our politics, but unfortunately we are not finding a way to resolve them," he said.
On May 5, both factions of the MQM-P held a joint rally in Karachi in a bid to remove their differences but Salahuddin says the effort did not yield any positive results.
He also pointed out that the Bahadurabad group would also be facing a challenge in nominating candidates as majority of the party's electables have joined Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) and more may defect to it in coming weeks.
Salahuddin said the PSP has gathered electables from the MQM-P but it would be premature to say if the people would vote for them.
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is also eying national and provincial assembly seats from Karachi and Hyderabad which were once the bastions of the MQM-P. Salahuddin pointed out that there is an ideological difference between politics of rural Sindh and politics of urban centers like Karachi and Hyderabad. He said that if the MQM-P remains divided, then PSP may gain the most in terms of number of seats from Karachi and Hyderabad instead of the PPP. "There is still enough time till general elections, so let's see how things turn up in the next couple of weeks," he added.