Farooq challenges ECP's ruling in IHC

The beleaguered Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Dr Farooq Sattar Wednesday challenged Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) ruling in convener-ship case in Islamabad High Court.
In his petition, Sattar contended that he was removed illegally as the party head on February 11 by members of MQM-P's Central Coordination Committee. "The said illegal removal was confirmed by the ECP in its March 26 order," read the petition.
The petitions assailing Sattar's position had been filed with the ECP by Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and Kanwar Naveed Jameel, leaders of MQM-P Bahadurabad factiona rival group of the Dr Sattar-led PIB faction.
The ECP had also accepted a petition challenging the resolution passed at an "emergency general workers' meeting" called by Dr Sattar last month. At the convention, when he had asked the participants through a resolution if they would endorse the coordination committee's decision to remove him from the position of the convener, the workers had replied in the negative. Following the ECP's judgment, Dr Sattar had told the media that the decision would be remembered as a 'dark verdict'. He had termed the judgment "illegal and unconstitutional" and said the Commission had never issued judgments on intra-party disputes in the past.