Daily Times

KARACHI: Candidates from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) chief Farooq Sattar and the coordination committee on Thursday separately submitted their nomination papers to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Kamran Tessori, Jamal Ahmed, Waseem Qureshi and Farhan Chishti submitted their nomination papers from the Sattar group.

Farogh Naseem, Nasreen Jalil, Abdul Qadir Khanzada and Ameenul Haq from the ‘Bahadurabad group’ of MQM-P also filed their nomination papers.

Sattar and coordination committee members Waseem Akhtar and Faisal Sabzwari met each other upon their arrival at the ECP.

Talking to reporters outside the ECP office in Karachi, Sabzwari said that he hoped that the rift between the two sides was healed soon.

“If the conflict persists, it will make matters worse and none of us wants that,” he said.

He said that the party had suffered more damage in the past four days than it had suffered when the MQM-P considered a coalition with the Pak Sarzameen Party.

Sabzwari insisted that the doors of the party’s Bahadurabad office were always open and Sattar could visit them any time.

“We want Farooq Sattar bhai to come to the Bahdurabad office and chair a meeting of the Rabta Committee so that we can reach an agreement,” he said.

Sattar said there were no differences within the party when he talked to the media on his way back from the ECP office.

“We would have sorted out this issue [earlier] but the media made it look like there was no solution to the problem,” he said.

On being told that Farogh Naseem had contemplated his removal as the party head, Sattar termed it “unbelievable”.

“No matter what you [the media] say, I don’t believe he can say that,” he said.

Both the groups had earlier said that they would continue deliberations to resolve their differences. The groups separately announced they would discuss the nominations, and that the nominations of all candidates other than the four final names both groups would decide on would be withdrawn.

Earlier in the day, Sattar had told the media outside his PIB Colony residence that he was nominating Kamran Tessori, former Citizens Police Liaison Committee chief Ahmed Chinoy, Farhan Chisti, the brother of slain MQM leader Khalid Bin Waleed, Sanjay Parwani, Khawaja Sohail, Qamar Mansoor, Ali Raza Abidi and Shahid Pasha for the general seats.

Additionally, he nominated Nikhat Shakeel and Mangla Sharma on reserved seats for women, whereas Chinoy and retired Justice Hassan Feroze were nominated on seats reserved for technocrats.

Addressing a press conference outside the Bahadurabad headquarters, Coordination Committee representative Senator Nasreen Jalil said that the committee had nominated Barrister Farrogh Naseem, Aminul Haq, Qadir Khanzada, Prof Mattiur Rahman, Kishwar Zahrah and Amir Chishti for the March 3 Senate elections.

MQM-P leader Khawaja Izharul Hassan, who has been brokering talks between the two groups, told the media that there was no trust deficit between the two groups.

He said that some elements had been spreading misinformation to create confusion, stressing that these elements had been exposed. He added that Sattar and the committee would tackle the issue at a suitable time.

Published in Daily Times, February 9^th 2018.