Farooq Sattar challenges ECP's jurisdiction in party convenership petition

ISLAMABAD: Muttahida Qaumi Movement's Farooq Sattar has challenged the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) jurisdiction to hear petition pertaining to the party's convenership. 

The infighting between party members over nominations for the upcoming Senate elections had earlier resulted in the emergence of splinter groups - Dr Farooq Sattar led PIB Colony faction and the Bahadurabad group consisting of Amir Khan, Nasreen Jalil, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and others. 

The petition, filed by Sattar's legal counsel Babar Sattar states that the party's internal matters cannot be heard by the ECP, demanding the Bahadurabad group's petition over should be dismissed

"MQM-P belongs to the party's workers and only they will protect it," he told journalists outside the ECP premises. "They [party workers] announced their verdict in the intra-party elections." 

Sattar said that he chose the constitutional process of holding intra-party elections and getting mandate from the party.

"I have proposed a formula if we want to sit down and solve matters through negotiation but it was Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui who approached the ECP to challenge [my] constitutional position," he said. 

He stressed that the party's constitution contains clauses to solve the conflict on the party's convenership. 

"But the legal issue is whether ECP has jurisdiction over the party's internal matters." 

On the other hand, Bahadurabad faction's Siddiqui said that the issue was over principles and not the party's convenership.

A large number of the party's workers, including the party's MNAs and MPAs, gathered outside the ECP's premises, where the hearing was taking place. Security personnel had to shut down the building's gates to prevent members of the party from entering the premises.