Daily Times

The media is having a field day, enjoying the squabble between the two factions, within what is now known as Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) The two sides are trading accusations by the hour, right in front of the TV cameras, and the end result has been pretty much, as expected. Comical from one perspective and truly befitting from the other. The thorny issue behind the contentious power struggle is the nominations for the candidates of the upcoming Senate Elections.

As these lines are being written, the split between the two factions is for real. Within the city, now the party is subdivided, as MQM-PIB Colony and MQM-Bahadurabad. The former is still led by Dr Farooq Sattar and the latter by the rebellious co-ordination committee members with a new convener in place, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui. Mr Siddiqui is backed by Amir Khan and the rest of the coordination committee members.

What began as a dispute over a candidate for the Senate elections, a relatively new entrant, by the name of Kamran Tessori, escalated into this much expected split. The split was not shocking at all, it was the speed, that how quickly the fissures became so fatal. Both sides preferred to communicate with one another through the ever-beaming tube. Folks incapable of solving their differences behind closed doors felt at ease in front of the cameras, while washing their dirty linen. What is telling is, the behind the scene engineers have bet on the wrong horses.

Mr. Tessori reportedly has been the source of financing for the beleaguered party and believed to be “well connected” with the Engineers. If Dr Farooq Sattar who ditched his founder and leader within hours of detention, still needs a middle man to reach the “men in charge”, then one sincerely hopes that he knows what he is doing.

To his credit, he has claimed that he is in for the big haul. According to him, legally he is the party head, which is registered with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), hence he has all the right to call the shots. Minor detail to be mentioned here is, the other faction has expelled him from the party by claiming that coordination committee has the right to dismiss him with ample majority.

As a retort, Dr Farooq Sattar has dissolved the coordination committee in Bahadurabad and called for fresh intra party elections. If going through these back to back moves have made you scratch your head, then you are not alone. Think of the poor voters and supporters who are equally perplexed and confused and share their frustrations quite openly on the social media.

One of the old stalwart of the party, was interviewed by a TV anchor, who gave it a positive spin, by calling it the evolution within the party. One can barely smile at his optimism for giving what seems to be a clear destruction, a new name. The question that is unclear, at least now; is it by default or by design. If one must make an impartial assessment, it is a bit of both.

What goes around comes around. There comes a point in one’s life that is considered the defining moment of that person. Perhaps Dr Sattar has his reasons for his actions, but unfortunately his defining moment has elapsed for good. He has truly missed the right bus

Some pundits on the tube are busy reading the obituary of the party aloud, predicting the total extinction of this party. According to their analyses, the city is up for grabs and the two parties that will be the ultimate beneficiaries of this feud, are Mustafa Kamal’s Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). According to their analyses, this party will eventually be buried in the dungeons of history.

For those with some lapse of memory, the same media was going ga ga over the heroic move of Dr Farooq Sattar for saving this great political enterprise from its ‘reckless leader’, back in August of 2016. In barely eighteen months, from that well applauded historic salvage to this deterioration, the same media is now taking critical positions about the embattled leader.

Ironic but quite a reflection of how things change often, so swiftly in the world of politics. It was not too long ago that Dr Farooq Sattar had ousted his founder and leader from the party, along with the blessings of the same coordination committee. Our dear darling media, invented a new abbreviation for our lexicon, at that point; MQM-London or simply MQM-L. Never mind, that MQM had an International Secretariat in London since the early nineties and all affairs of the party were closely watched and administered by the founder and leader.

Speaking of the ever-active media, that tries to dig into a lot of unnecessary details, one wonders why it never questioned Dr Farooq Sattar, how he could legally expel the founder and leader. Anyone who has had some exposure to the most organized and very tightly held political party in the history of the country, is in disbelief. How could the founder and leader be dismissed by then Deputy Convener and his party compatriots? Especially, the one who had the veto power to override any decision of his party members.

The same fellow members have now expelled Dr Sattar from the same party within eighteen months. What a strange twist of fate or the age-old karma. What goes around comes around. There comes a point in one’s life that is considered the defining moment of that person. Perhaps Dr Sattar has his reasons for his actions, but unfortunately his defining moment has elapsed for good. He has truly missed the right bus.

The writer is a Pakistani-US mortgage banker. He can be reached at dasghar@aol.com. TW @dasghar

Published in Daily Times, February 18^th 2018.