The Islamabad High Court on Monday dismissed Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Farooq Sattar’s plea against the Election Commission of Paki
stan’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 EC
P decision
after Sattar’s counsel Babar argued that the commission had no jurisdiction over internal p
arty matters.
Published in Daily Times, June 12th 2018.