ISLAMABAD, Aug 8: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has warned that an executive-judiciary tiff is evolving into a confrontation that will have serious consequences for the country’s already polarised polity.

“At first it was an issue between the executive and the judiciary. However, with the passage of time, parliament is also becoming a party to it. If parliament and courts come face to face then it will be a dangerous situation,” MQM’s parliamentary leader in National Assembly Dr Farooq Sattar said while talking to media representatives at an Iftar hosted by the party here on Wednesday.

Dr Sattar, whose party had joined hands with former dictator Gen Pervez Musharraf and now is part of the PPP-led ruling coalition, claimed that unlike in the past the political parties and legal fraternity today were not totally behind the judiciary.

“Pakistan’s legal fraternity is divided. The political parties are not behind the judiciary as they were at the time of the movement for the reinstatement of (Chief Justice) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry,” he said.

Dr Sattar and Sindh Information Technology Minister Raza Haroon highlighted the significance of an initiative taken by MQM chief Altaf Hussain for uniting all political parties on a “minimum national agenda” before going to the elections.

Dr Sattar said people in the country were talking about the elections whereas an international debate was going on about “whether Pakistan is a successful state or a failed state”. He said representatives of the MQM were meeting leaders of political parties and religious organisations in an effort to convert the country into a truly democratic welfare state as envisioned by the Quiad-i-Azam.

He was of the opinion that political parties would get a split mandate in the next elections and, therefore, it was high time to “prepare a pre-election roadmap”. He said each party represented a region and there was a need to have a national agenda.

He said his party would have no objection if any other party wanted to take the credit for hosting the roundtable conference proposed by the MQM chief.

The MQM has contacted a number of parties and groups, including the Pakistan People’s Party, Jamaat-i-Islami, Awami National Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Q, Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf, Pakistan Sunni Tehrik, PPP-S, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, PML-F and Fata parliamentarians and received a positive response from most of them on its initiative to convene the roundtable conference as stressed Altaf Hussain in a speech last month in which he had hinted at some unspecified dangers to the country’s integrity and security.

However, the party received a cautious response from the JUI-F and the PPP-S which expressed apprehensions about the outcome of the conference keeping in view the result of similar exercises in the past.The PML-N expressed its “serious reservations” over the move, saying it was not even keen to have a meeting with MQM’s leaders.

Talking to Dawn, Dr Sattar, however, expressed the hope that a meeting between the MQM and PML-N would be held soon after Eid.