KARACHI: The Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Rabita Committee on Sunday removed Farooq Sattar as the party’s convener. “There are many reasons why Farooq Sattar was removed from his position,” party leader Kunwar Naveed Jamil told a televised press conference. “He tried to amend the party’s constitution through underhand dealing and hurt the sentiments of Rabita Committee. Party tried to explain things to him but he did not pay heed.” “The registration of a party as organized as the MQM was cancelled by the ECP only due to the negligence of Dr Farooq Sattar. Despite continuous reminders from the Coordination Committee, Sattar did not file wealth statements of the party workers with the ECP, due to which the party’s registration was cancelled,” Jamil explained. “Dr Sattar purposefully sabotaged the Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation – the welfare arm of the MQM – by committing gross mismanagement in its affairs. Nazeer Hussain University is dysfunctional and its employees haven’t been paid for seven months now,” he alleged. “He also altered the party constitution to his own benefit and siphoned all authorities and powers to himself,” he further alleged. “We all love Farooq Bhai deeply in personal capacity. He was our party’s convener. He no longer is. We deliberated in detail regarding this issue and the reasons I’m detailing are a small fraction of all the ones we deliberated,” Jamil said. “The whole issue started when Dr Farooq Sattar tried to force Kamran Tessori as the party’s candidate for Senate elections,” he said, alleging that Sattar remained unwilling to accommodate the coordination committee’s requests despite multiple overtures to seek a solution to the problem. Jamil claimed that the committee even abdicated its right to nominate senators completely for the sake of maintaining unity in the party but Sattar remained closed to the demand of removing Tessori from the nominees. “Thus, we decided to promote the movement and not individuals,” he continued. “Dr Farooq Sattar does not hold any position of responsibility in the party anymore. He is now a common worker of the party,” he concluded. MQM-P Deputy Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said Sattar’s removal had been necessitated by the latter’s call for a party workers’ convention that would have split the party completely. He, however, did not foreclose the possibility of Sattar being reinstated as the convener of the party, saying the committee would be open to it if Sattar ‘realises his error’. The move came hours after the Election Commission of Pakistan allowed MQM-P Deputy Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui the power to hand out party tickets for upcoming Senate elections. “Conspiracy has unfolded … cat is out of the bag,” Dr Farooq Sattar responded after being removed from the post of MQM convener. “The issue was not about the nomination of one person … they wanted to nominate their favourites,” he claimed. Soon after the ECP announced its decision, Dr Sattar and other party leaders arrived at the election body’s office in Karachi. “I am the party convener and only I have the right to give a ticket,” Dr Sattar told ECP officials, contesting the election body’s ruling. “In my presence, the deputy convener cannot even call a meeting.” “I was ousted through a structured conspiracy. If I had made all the mistakes they claim I have made, why did they wait for the Senate election to act on them?” he asked. “And if I had usurped all the powers in the party, how did they so successfully hold multiple meetings without my knowledge and conspire against me as well? They haven’t just sacked me … they have deprived every deserving worker of the party of his due right,” he said. “The verdict will be delivered by the people’s court,” he announced, before inviting all party workers to the KMC ground in PIB Colony for a grand convention. “This was just a trailer: the full film will play at the KMC ground,” he said. Later, while addressing a gathering at PIB, Sattar asked a charged crowd that who they wanted as the party’s leader? The crowd responded with chants of “Farooq Bhai, Farooq Bhai”. Citing a section of the party constitution, Sattar announced to sack all the conveners and deputy conveners of the party in a counter move after the coordination committee had announced to sack him as the MQM chief earlier in the day. Sattar asked the audience to raise hands if they wanted to see the coordination committee dissolved, and after receiving a positive response he announced to dissolve the committee and called for holding fresh intra-party elections. Published in Daily Times, February 12th 2018.