KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) chief Farooq Sattar on Sunday warned that party legislators will resign from parliament if they are further ‘coerced’ into switching party. “Time has come for us to make a decision,” Sattar told a press conference at party’s central office in Bahadurabad, while conceding that some of the lawmakers who had left the party earlier had done so at their own. “It has been a year since we parted ways with the MQM-London. But still our legislators are being pressurised to switch loyalties. I don’t understand why it’s being done,” he said. “Not only our MPAs, MNAs and senators, but also town and UC committee leaders are being threatened to quit the party,” he said.
“One of our members from North Nazimabad town, Sohail Qureshi, was arrested and later seen in the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) camp. Following this, several other members defected to the PSP,” he claimed, adding, “If it is being done to keep MQM-P away from forthcoming senate elections, their dream will not come true.”
“PSP is the biggest threat to the Urdu speaking community,” he said, adding PSP was working to end MQM-P’s representation in Senate.
Speaking about his party’s reservations on census results, Sattar said the party would stage a protest rally on November 5 at Mazar-e-Quaid.
Recently, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had assured a delegation of the MQM-P headed by Farooq Sattar that the promises made with the latter by Nawaz Sharif would be fulfilled. Abbasi had directed the interior minister to review the MQM-P’s complaints about the arbitrary arrests of its activists and ensure that these cases were dealt with in a fair manner.
Published in Daily Times, October 23rd 2017.
