KARACHI:MQM’s two factions celebrated the party’s 34th foundation day at separate venues on Sunday
Dr Farooq Sattar’s PIB faction celebrated the day on the Liaquatabad flyover while the Bahadurabad group, led by Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, had their gathering at Nishtar Park.
A contingent of law enforcement agencies was deployed on roads leading to the Jinnah Ground to stop party workers from going to the Yadgaar-e-Shuhada.
At the PIB faction’s event, Kamran Tessori offered to resign. “If my resignation saves the Mohajirs from divisions, I request Dr Farooq Sattar to accept my resignation,” he said. “My family and I have not slept peacefully for a month. Now that my Bahadurabad comrades are so stubborn, I feel that I should leave the party.”
Party leaders did not accept his resignation.
Dr Sattar recalled how the party stood up against anti-Pakistan slogans of its founder for the sake of the country. “We made Pakistan and we saved Pakistan,” he said. “In the same spirit, when we created MQM, can we now save it now?”
He said that the “conspiracy” was not minus-one. “It was minus-MQM and you can see it even today,” he said.
At the Bahadurabad group’s event, Siddiqui appreciated the choice of venue, saying that Nishtar Park has always served as the ground for struggle against dictatorship and for the restoration of democracy. “It has been the centre of the struggle for rights.”
He said that Dr Sattar should come back and assume responsibilities of the party as long as he is willing to keep the party’s constitution above everything else.
Published in Pakistan, Weird
Story first published: 19th March 2018