ISLAMABAD, MAR 01 (DNA)  – Farooq Sattar on Thursday has challenged jurisdiction of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) regarding hearing Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) convenership case.

During the proceeding, Sattar’s lawyer challenged the decision to declare the petitions as admissible and requested to dismiss MQM leader Kanwar Naveed’s plea.

The lawyer said that the solution to such issues is already present in party’s law, however, the ECP cannot hear such cases, he acontinued.

ECP’s responsibility is to arrange elections for Senate, national and provincial assemblies, the added.

Earlier, lawyers Farogh Naseem from MQM Bahadurabad group and Babar Sattar from MQM PIB group had appeared in ECP.

Farogh Naseem told the commission that Farooq Sattar conducted so-called intraparty elections over which ECP sought reply from Sattar in the next hearing.

The lawyer further demanded to not postpone the case as Senate polls are on March 3 on which CEC said that he adjourned the hearing till March 1 due to the same reason.

Talking to media after the hearing, Farogh said that 95 percent party takes Khalid Maqbool as convener while Babar Sattar said that 12,000 members had expressed confidence on Farooq Sattar.

Meanwhile, Kamran Tessori said that steps will be taken to resolve the matters without separating the party members. Will accept ECP decision, he added.

MQM-P had earlier divided into two groups after a dispute over the party’s nominations for Senate election. Two senior members, Farooq Sattar and Amir Khan.

It was reported that Sattar suggested the name of Kamran Tessori for the Senate ticket which was opposed by Amir Khan and his faction. Later on both senior members had called separate party meetings till now.

The coordination committee had wrote to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to withdraw authority of Dr Farooq Sattar, and removed him from the position of convener. It had earlier removed Tessori from the committee.