The Islamabad High Court on Monday dismissed Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Farooq Sattar’s plea against the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to remove him as the party convener.
Dismissing the petition, the IHC declared Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, a leader of the Bahadurabad faction of the party, as the convener.
Siddiqui had approached the ECP against Sattar after the latter got elected as the mayor in a controversial intra-party election. The differences between the top leadership of the party had first surfaced over the issue of award of tickets for the Senate elections.
Sattar had wanted to award a ticket to Kamran Tessori, and his decision was opposed by the rabita committee of the party. The committee later removed him as the party convener.
In his petition before the court, Sattar maintained that he was illegally’ removed as the party head on February 11. “The said illegal removal was confirmed by the learned ECP in its March 26 order,” the petition read. On March 29, the high court temporarily suspended the ECP decision after Sattar’s counsel Babar argued that the commission had no jurisdiction over internal party matters.
Published in Daily Times, June 12th 2018.
