KARACHI: The Election Commission of Pakistan has reserved its verdict on the maintainability of a plea regarding an intra-party dispute in Mutahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) over the role of the party convener. On March 1, Dr Farooq Sattar of the PIB Colony faction had challenged the ECP’s jurisdiction to hear the petition, contending that it an internal affair of the party. The petition, filed by Sattar’s counsel Babar Sattar, stated that the party’s internal matters could not be heard by the ECP, demanding the Bahadurabad group’s petition should be dismissed. Maqbool Siddiqui’s counsel Farogh Naseem presented his arguments on Tuesday, submitting that Sattar was dismissed from the post in accordance with rules. He said that Sattar’s intra-party election held on February 18 was in violation of the party’s election rules. Naseem said that all disputes should be resolved as per the party’s constitution, adding that if there was an intra-party dispute, the ECP could look into the matter. Referring to earlier verdicts, he stressed that the ECP had the jurisdiction to resolve the matter. During the hearing, Sattar’s counsel Babar Sattar said that the ECP had no jurisdiction over intra-party issues. Babar said that the ECP should check its record from 2012 to 2016, according to which all the party tickets were issued under Sattar’s signature. Following this, the Chief Election Commissioner said that the commission could not rule on the matter of rights. The ECP then reserved the decision on the maintainability of the petition and adjourned the hearing until March 26. Published in Daily Times, March 14th 2018.