KARACHI: Rifts in Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) over Senate tickets deepened further late Monday, as the Rabita Committee suspended Kamran Tessori in a press talk termed by party chief Farooq Sattar as "unconstitutional".

Earlier in the day, a party meeting ended in chaos as Sattar and senior leader Amir Khan disagreed with each other over the names of candidates for the Senate elections. Following the disagreement, Sattar and his supporters left the Bahadurabad venue for his residence in PIB Colony amid chants in the party chief's favour.

Internal rifts within MQM-P deepen over Senate tickets

Sattar and his supporters left Bahadurabad for the MQM-P chief?s residence at PIB Colony

Meanwhile, members of the Rabita Committee held a meeting, wherein they decided to suspend Tessori and revoke his party membership for six months.

"Kamran Tessori bhai is not a member of Rabita Committee anymore but Farooq Sattar bhai remains our convener," Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui announced, adding that Tessori "has also been suspended from the party for six months".

He said the Rabita Committee had recommended six names for the Senate elections ? Nasreen Jalil, Farogh Nasim, Aminul Haque, Shabbir Qaimkhani, Amir Khan, and Kamran Tessori ? but Sattar insisted on "sacrificing two other leaders" to ensure Tessori's seat in the Upper House of Parliament. 

The Rabita Committee had accepted several of the party convener's wishes, Siddiqui said, but added that party workers would not let them go ahead with Tessori's nomination for the Senate seat.

Siddiqui was flanked by Waseem Akhtar, Faisal Sazbwari, Amir Khan, and other senior leaders at the press conference. 

A gold trader by profession, Tessori is a former member of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) who joined MQM-P last year and quickly rose to prominence. He contested the PS-114 by-election for MQM-P against the Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP) Saeed Ghani but lost by a big margin.

Senate elections are scheduled to take place on March 3.

Four out of eight MQM-P senators ? including Colonel (R) Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, Dr Mohammad Farogh Naseem, Maulana Tanveer-ul-Haq Thanvi, and Nasreen Jalil ? will retire next month.

The MQM-P will contest for 12 Senate seats from Sindh ? where it is the second-largest party ? enjoying the support of 50 members of the provincial assembly (MPAs) in the 168-member body. The PPP has 94 lawmakers in the provincial assembly.