Farooq Sattar resigns from MQM-P's coordination committee

Dr Farooq Sattar, one of the founding members of the Mutthaida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, has resigned from the party's coordination committee and is expected to contest the forthcoming by-election as a Pakistan Tehree-e-Insaaf Party candidate, sources said.

Sattar, a key figure in the MQM-P, resigned days after it emerged that the PTI had offered him a ticket to contest the NA-247 by-poll after the seat fell vacant following the election of Arif Alvi as the president of Pakistan.

Alvi had defeated Sattar in the July 25th General Elections.

Sources said that since last year Sattar has been at loggerheads with other members of the MQM-P coordination committee which runs the party affairs after the ban on its founder Altaf Hussain who is exiled in London.

Sattar said PTI leaders had reached out to him with an invitation to join the party. "They want me to contest from Alvi's seat. I am consulting with close aides, he said.

MQM-P since its inception in 1986 has been a major political player in Karachi and other urban areas of the Sindh province.

But in the July 25 National Assembly (NA) elections, the Karachi-based MQM-P, which ruled Pakistan's commercial hub for decades, managed to get just seven NA seats compared to its 24 seats in 2013.