Deputy Mayor Arshad Vohra joins PSP

MQM-P will clinch more seats than ever: Sattar

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) suffered a major setback on Sunday as its one more leader and Deputy Mayor of Karachi Arshad Vohra bid the party adieu and joined Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP).     

Addressing a press conference alongside PSP president Anis QaimKhani at Pakistan House, Vohra announced joining the Mustafa Kamal's PSP.

Vohra said many big names, including MNAs, associated with the MQM-P were willing to ditch MQM-P to join Kamal-led PSP, adding that he did not join the party under any kind of pressure.

Offering apology for failing to serve the public, he said, he preferred to relinquish his post if he could not keep the promises he had made to his voters.

Referring to MQM-P leaders' hue and cry over limited resources and powers, Vohra said they could still have delivered despite finite resources.

The PSP president said if Dr Farooq Sattar had moral standing, he along with his party men should resign from membership of the provincial and national assemblies as a large number of leaders associated with his party were ready to join the PSP.

He was referring to Dr Sattar's warning last Sunday that the lawmakers of his party would resign, if they were coerced into changing their allegiance.

If MQM-P legislators resign, the PSP will field its candidates in the by-elections on the vacated seats, he further said. He said the party had rejected the provisional results of the census 2017.

A day earlier, MQM-P head Dr Farooq Sattar had lamented that his party activists and leaders were being forced to change their allegiance.

Taking a swipe at PSP, he said the party was formed to dry-clean outlaws. Referring to a MQM member from North Nazimabad town, Sohail Qureshi, joining PSP, he said Qureshi was forced to ditch his old party.

Vohra is an industrialist and a former chairman of SITE Association. He is a chemical engineer with a PhD in textile technology from the UK.

He was elected Member Provincial Assembly of Sindh on May 2013. He resigned from his post after he was nominated Deputy Mayor of Karachi from MQM. He was elected Deputy Mayor of Karachi on August 24, 2016 and took oath on August 30, 2016.

On the occasion Qaimkhani said that Vohra would now be seen as a culprit by Dr Farooq Sattar-led political party.

Meanwhile, Dr Farooq Sattar has said on Sunday, reacting to deputy mayor Arshad Vohra's parting ways with Muttahida Qaumi Movement, that the political party would clinch more seats in General Elections 2018 than before.

Dr Sattar talked to the media in Karachi and called for an end to 'politics of repression and force' and claimed that no matter how many elected representatives of the party shift their alliance, MQM would win more seats than ever in the elections scheduled for mid-2018.

However, MQM Pakistan chief said that Vohra having joined Pak Sarzameen Party is saddening to him.

The development came today after Dr Sattar had warned on October 22nd to resign among all elected members of MQM in provincial assembly, National Assembly and the Senate in case forcible approaching to MQM members was not stopped.

He had claimed that members of the party were being pressurized by certain elements to part ways.

Dr Sattar said that Vohra is welcome to join MQM Pakistan again once the legal case against his brother is dealt with according to his wishes.

He implied that Vohra joined PSP as he was disturbed over case against his brother.

Dr Sattar said that the ongoing deprivation of political representation is adding to woes of the people of Karachi and it would not result in any good for anyone. - NNI