KARACHI - A rift between two senior Muttahida Quami Moverment-Pakistan leaders, Farooq Sattar and Amir Khan, seems to have deepened over the issue of Senate tickets, it emerged on Monday evening.
A session of the MQM-P ended in chaos on Monday as the two senior party leaders disagreed with each other when the names of candidates for Senate elections were being discussed. Following the reported disagreement, Sattar and his supporters left Bahadurabad for the MQM-P chief’s residence at PIB Colony. The supporters of Sattar also chanted slogans in his favour while the supporters of Amir Khan remained with him at the meeting’s venue. Meanwhile, sources said the session at Bahadurabad will resume soon and will be chaired by Amir Khan.
For the session all town offices members have been summoned, sources added. Four out of eight MQM-P senators, including Col (r) Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, Dr Mohammad Farogh Naseem, Maulana Tanveer-ul-Haq Thanvi, and Nasreen Jalil will retire next month. Senate elections are scheduled to take place on March 3.
The MQM-P will contest for 12 Senate seats from Sindh, where it is the second-largest party, enjoying the support of 50 MPAs in the 168-member provincial assembly. The PPP has 94 lawmakers in the provincial assembly.
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