LONDON: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)’s London-based leadership on Sunday announced the expulsion of MQM-Pakistan leader Dr Farooq Sattar from the party, according to a statement shared by MQM leader Wasay Jalil.
Jalil, and party leaders Mustafa Azizabadi, Qasim Ali Raza and Muhammad Ishfaq in a joint statement released by the party’s London secretariat, announced that Dr Sattar had been expelled from the party due to ‘repeated betrayals to the party and the supreme leadership’.
“Nadeem Nusrat, no one except him, is the elected convener of Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Farooq Sattar has been removed from basic party membership,” said the statement.
The joint statement added that the MQM’s Coordination Committee had appointed Dr Sattar as parliamentary leader after the approval of party chief Altaf Hussain as per the constitution and laws of the party. Dr Sattar was not authorised to impose his decision on the party and other affairs, it added.
“Dr Sattar committed treason time and again and managed to return to his earlier-held positions in the party due to the kindheartedness of Altaf Hussain.” “Today, all workers of MQM are informed that Farooq Sattar has been sacked from the party for repeatedly betraying and dealing with establishment at the cost of the blood of Haqparast workers,” said the statement.
The statement further said that Dr Sattar was not a parliamentary leader of the MQM any longer, so all legislators were free to submit their resignations. The statement warned that disciplinary action and a social boycott would be imposed on those defying party orders.
The joint statement went on to say that on several occasions, party workers gave the right to take all important decisions to Altaf Hussain. The party’s London secretariat also directed party activists to believe only on the statements of Nadeem Nusrat, which it claimed were affirmed by Altaf Hussain.
Farooq Sattar in August ‘sidelined’ MQM supremo Altaf Hussain after an anti-Pakistan rant which was followed by an attack on the office of a private TV channel. The MQM’s London leadership rejected the minus-Altaf formula, asserting that Altaf was still the party’s uncontested chief.
Nadeem Nusrat on Saturday asked all leaders and workers of the party to submit an apology for deserting Altaf Hussain for any reason and for joining him again.
The ‘appeal’ came a week after emergence of an audio message on the social media in which Altaf Hussain was heard asking MQM legislators to resign from their seats and contest elections afresh since they got votes in his name.
Not a single MQM legislator – now part of Dr Farooq Sattar-led MQM-Pakistan – has so far sent his resignation to the Senate and national or provincial assemblies.
The Sattar-led MQM had recently sacked Nadeem Nusrat and three others from the coordination committee.
In a tit-for-tat reaction, Nusrat had dissolved the coordination committee and all organisational structure of the MQM on the instruction of Altaf Hussain, who also gave him powers to reorganise the party.
In a reaction to Nusrat’s statement, Dr Sattar appointed himself the convener of the party and expelled two members of the coordination committee – Ashraf Noor and Akram Qureshi – from the party to firm up his grip on the party’s organisational affairs.
He told a press conference in the evening that besides senior deputy convener Amir Khan, Kahfulwara, Nasreen Jalil and Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui were made deputy conveners, while Faisal Subzwari, Abdul Waseem and Kishwar Zehra appointed members of the coordination committee.
Last month, MQM leaders in the Sindh Assembly were also among lawmakers who unanimously passed a joint resolution seeking a treason case against those responsible for anti-Pakistan slogans, hate speech and subsequent violence on Aug 22.
The move followed the removal of Altaf’s London-based coterie from the top decision-making forum of the party by MQM Pakistan.
