KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement announced on Saturday that it had decided to quit the federal and provincial governments in protest against what it described as ‘negative attitude’ of the People’s Party.

The decision of the MQM coordination committee came at a time when the national and provincial assemblies are going to complete their tenure in a matter of a few weeks and the office of the leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly has gained much importance because of its role in finalising a caretaker set-up in the province with the outgoing chief minister.

Now lawmakers belonging to the MQM would sit on opposition benches in parliament as well as in the Sindh Assembly and keeping in view its strength in the provincial assembly, it would easily have any of its MPAs notified as leader of the opposition.

Although senior MQM leader Dr Farooq Sattar strongly criticised the PPP at a press conference on Saturday, it appeared that the relationship between the top leaders of the MQM and the PPP was not strained, as the former did not ask Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan, an MQM nominee, to quit the gubernatorial office and not to work in Sindh as a representative of President Asif Ali Zardari.

Flanked by other MQM leaders, including Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and Nasreen Jalil, Dr Sattar hurled serious accusations against the PPP of patronising ‘criminals and terrorists’, not implementing the Sindh People’s Local Government Act, 2012, and creating hindrance in work of MQM ministers.

He insisted that the decision to part ways with the PPP was final and it would not change.

The MQM leader said the decision to end the alliance with the PPP was not taken in haste and now no one could blame his party for not allowing the government to complete its five-year term.

He said the PPP had formed the People's Amn Committee and gave it a free hand to “extort traders, industrialists and shopkeepers and kill workers and supporters of the MQM”.

He evaded a question about the fate of the Sindh governor and said that the coordination committee had decided about quitting the federal and provincial governments and ‘any other decision’ would be taken in future sessions of the committee.