MQM-P lawmakers will resign if threats to switch parties don't stop: Sattar

MQM-P chief says even party's town and UC committee leaders being forced to switch loyalties

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) chief Farooq Sattar warned on Sunday that his party’s lawmakers would resign from parliament if they were further “coerced” into switching parties.

“The time has come that we make a decision,” he said at a press conference and added that all the MQM-P senators, MNAs and MPAs had submitted their resignations to the party.



“It’s been a year since we parted ways with the MQM-London but still our party’s legislators are being forced to switch loyalties. I don’t understand why this is happening,” he added. He alleged that preparations were being made to sideline the MQM-P from the coming elections for half the seats of the upper house of parliament.

Sattar conceded that some of the lawmakers who had left the party earlier had done so of their choice but said he could not comprehend the decision of those leaving now when it had been more than a year since they had parted ways with the MQM-London.

He said the MQM-P leadership had spoken with its lawmakers and they were all being pressured to switch loyalties. “Not only our MPAs, MNAs and senators, but also town and UC leaders are being threatened and told 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.”



Sattar also said his party would hold a protest rally at Mazar-e-Quaid on November 5 over its reservations on this year’s census results.

Recently, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi met a delegation of the MQM-P and asked the interior minister to review the party’s complaints about arrests of its activists and ensure that the cases were dealt with in a fair manner. The MQM-P also complained to the PM about the Sindh government’s lack of cooperation with the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.