KARACHI: Dr Farooq Sattar, who heads the PIB Colony faction of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, said on Sunday that they have nothing to do with the MQM-London boycotting the general elections. However, he added, given their own circumstances, they are yet to decide if they will participate in the polls.

Sattar told The News that the MQM-L’s poll boycott can dent the party’s vote bank as much as by 15 per cent because the faction, predominantly its chief Altaf Hussain, ran the party from the UK for around three decades and, despite a crackdown, still has a following.

Earlier, speaking at a ration distribution programme in Baldia Town, he said that the way the MQM-P has disintegrated into the PIB Colony and Bahadurabad groups seems an attempt to divide the party’s vote bank to make room for the Pakistan Peoples Party and others that traditionally do not fit in urban Sindh’s political landscape.

Things have changed drastically for the MQM since the 2013 general elections. Now the party is divided into four factions, if you count the independent Pak Sarzameen Party that is led by former Karachi mayor Mustafa Kamal.

If the PIB Colony and Bahadurabad groups do not reconcile, they will primarily compete against each other as well as against the PSP on the mandate in the urban parts of Sindh. The MQM-L, which faces a blanket ban, is not contesting the polls.

“[Just to clarify,] neither are we connected with the MQM-L nor do we have anything to do with its boycott,” Sattar said.

“However, the conspiracies that have been spun against us and the way we have been handled, we need to contemplate whether to run in the election or not.”

He added that his party should be given fair political space and their offices that have been sealed by the authorities should be returned to them so they can carry out their campaigns and other activities.