KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan PIB faction leader Farooq Sattar on Monday extended an olive branch to the Bahadurabad faction. Asking the Bahadurabad faction to choose between him and Amir Khan, his only condition, the disgruntled leader said he was ready to accept the entire Bahadurabad rabita committee and to withdraw his demand for its dissolution. “I am ready to accept the entire Rabita Committee but my only condition is that Bahadurabad [faction] chooses between me and Amir Khan,” Sattar said at a press conference. “Now, either I will remain a part of MQM or Amir Khan,” he said. The party has seen infighting between Sattar on the one side and most members of the rabita committee on the other side ever since differences emerged over nominations for the Senate election. Late last month, for the first time, leaders of both factions got together for a joint press conference at the party’s Bahadurabad office. At the press conference, Sattar said Bahadurabad office was the joint home of party workers despite their differences. He added that all workers in PIB and Bahadurabad were part of MQM. He also noted that the two groups shared an ideological bond despite their disagreements. Further, Khawaja Izharul Hassan excused himself from being part of an arbitration committee, following Sattar’s decision to challenge the ECP’s ruling on the party’s convenership matter in the Islamabad High Court (IHC). Following the onset of infighting, Sattar called a fresh election for rabita committee and convener positions on March 26. After securing 9,433 votes, he assumed the charge of the convener’s office, while the Bahadurabad faction dismissed the election as held in violation of the party manifesto. Sattar was deposed by the Rabita Committee on February 11. Appeasement efforts by the Bahadurabad faction bore no fruition and the rift between splinter groups of the party got worse after the Bahadurabad group filed a petition challenging the intra-party elections held by Sattar. A five-member bench of the ECP, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan, on March 26 had ruled that Sattar could no longer serve as the convener of MQM-P. The bench also dismissed Sattar’s petition challenging the jurisdiction of ECP in the case and nullified the intra-party elections of MQM, in which Sattar was elected as the party chief. But in a dramatic turn of events, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) dismissed on Thursday the ECP’s order after Sattar had challenged the order in the IHC. Bahadurabad group unimpressed Bahadurabad group’s Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui held a press conference on Monday and turned down Sattar’s offer. Published in Daily Times, April 24th 2018.