KARACHI - Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) chief Farooq Sattar, following his meeting with Rabita Committee members, has said that they have a difference of opinion, but there is no division among them.
Speaking to media outside his residence on Tuesday night, Sattar said, “This is a matter between brothers. Those who visited my home are my brothers.”
He said that he had to take a position and thanked workers for extending their support to him. “We will have to differentiate between difference of opinion and division. We have difference of opinion, but not division.”
The MQM-P chief said that he and Rabita Committee members, with whom he had a meeting, will further ponder over the situation.
“Rabita Committee has assured me that they hold me as the [party] head,” he said, adding, “If something could not be finalised in today’s meeting, then it can be taken up tomorrow afternoon.”
Earlier, Sattar called an emergency Rabita Committee meeting Tuesday evening.
Sattar, who abruptly left a party meeting on Monday over a disagreement on Senate candidate nominations, also refused to call off a general workers’ meeting to be held later today, sources said.
Three senior members of the party — Nasreen Jalil, Faisal Subzwari, and Wasim Akhtar — were included in a delegation that had earlier failed to appease the party’s convener.
Earlier, Amir Khan group went to the residence of Farooq Sattar to convince him to end the stalemate that had created confusion among the party ranks.
According to sources in MQM-Pakistan, Farooq Sattar had refused to visit Bahadurabad camp and bow down to the pressure of the Coordination Committee. The sources, however, said that the negotiations between the two groups were continuing at Farooq Sattar’s residence and both the sides were willing to conclude the issue on better notes,” they said.
They further said that there was only a dispute over opinions from both sides rather than a divide.
“The issue will be sorted out by Tuesday night in a manner that would not hurt any sides,” they said.
Earlier, a delegation comprising Rauf Siddiqui, MQM Parliamentary Leader in Sindh Assembly, Syed Sardar Ahmed and Javed Hanif was dispatched from the Bahadurabad camp on Tuesday morning to the Farooq Sattar’s residence in order to find a solution to the situation but failed in its efforts.
Later, Amir Khan along with other members of the coordination committee went to the residence of Sattar to resolve dispute among party ranks.
It is pertinent to mention here that the major party leadership is standing alongside the MQM leader Amir Khan including Opposition Leader in Sindh Assembly Khawaja Izhar, MQM Parliamentary Leader in Sindh Sardar Ahmed, Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhter, Khalid Maqbool Siddqui, Kanwar Naveed Jamil and others.
While, some known figures standing alongside Farooq Sattar include Deputy Convener Kamran Tessori, MPA Kamran Akhter along with some other members of the Sindh assembly, MNA Ali Raza Abidi and Shahid Pasha.
Talking to media outside MQM Bahadurabad headquarters on Tuesday evening, Aminul Haque said that Nasreen Jalil, Faisal Subzwari, and Wasim Akhtar are now part of the six-member delegation in talks with Farooq Sattar.
“MQM-P is a democratic party and we still consider Farooq Sattar as the leader of the party and had also extended an invitation to come to the party office and lead the party,” Haque told the media during a Rabita Committee press conference on Tuesday evening.
The conflict arose between the two on Monday night after disagreements over allotment of Senate ticket to MQM deputy Convener Kamran Tessori.
Sattar on Monday night left the party’s makeshift headquarters in Bahadurabad after which the MQM Coordination committee member Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui addressed a press conference to inform media that they had suspended the membership of Kamran Tessori for six months.