ISLAMABAD: A delegation of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) will meet President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday to sort out renewed tensions with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in Sindh, sparked once again by some controversial remarks of Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza. “We will seek a categorical reply from the president whether he wants to take along the MQM or extortionists and criminals,” Muttahida’s parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Dr Farooq Sattar told Dawn, alluding to an organisation that his party does not see eye to eye with and about which Dr Mirza spoke at a public meeting in Karachi’s Malir area on Sunday.
On the other hand, a source in the PPP said President Zardari, who is the co-chairman of the party, had already spoken to Dr Mirza and expressed his “displeasure” over his remarks that had annoyed the coalition partner.
Dr Sattar said his party would wait for the outcome of Tuesday’s meeting with President Zardari before taking a decision about the future of MQM-PPP relations in Sindh as well as at the centre.
He said the party’s coordination committee had already announced that the MQM would boycott the sessions of the Sindh Assembly, the National Assembly and the Senate till the resolution of the row and he had conveyed this decision to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday.
The decision to boycott the sessions has come at a time when President Zardari is preparing for his mandatory address to a joint sitting of parliament by the end of this month.
MQM sources said the party had also decided to boycott all official events and activities as a mark of protest.
On Monday, the MQM boycotted the Sindh Assembly session in the morning and abstained from the official banquet hosted by President Zardari for the visiting Tajik President Emamoli Rahmonov in Islamabad.
Dr Sattar said the prime minister, in his telephonic talk with him in the evening, “showed his concern over the prevailing political situation in Sindh”.
He said he expected that the prime minister would either attend the MQM delegation’s meeting with the president or have a separate meeting.
The MQM sources said Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who had always played the role of a mediator between the two parties due to his ‘personal’ relations with MQM chief Altaf Hussain, contacted the Muttahida leadership twice on Sunday, but the party gave him a cold shoulder.
SISTER ORGANISATION: A fresh war of words between the Sindh home minister and the MQM erupted on Sunday when Dr Mirza, in his speech in Malir, said the People’s Amn Committee — a body allegedly formed by members of two rival gangs in Lyari — was a sister
organisation of the PPP and dubbing all its members as criminals would be tantamount to levelling the same allegation against him.
The MQM has been alleging that the committee’s members are involved in extortion, kidnappings for ransom and robberies in Karachi and says it believes the body is backed by Dr Mirza and some other PPP members.
Privately, MQM leaders claim Chief Minister Shah is a dummy chief executive and the provincial government is actually being run by “other people”, with the real decisions made by MNA Faryal Talpur, a sister of President Zardari, Dr Mirza, and provincial Ministers Agha Siraj Durrani and Nadir Magsi. The charge is denied by the PPP.
The party enjoys a comfortable majority in the Sindh Assembly with more than 100 MPAs in the 168-member house, but the provincial cabinet has representation of all the parties on both treasury and opposition benches. The PPP is particularly keen to retain the MQM as an ally in view of its domination of politics in Karachi and Hyderabad.
The opposition leader in the provincial assembly, Madad Ali Khan, is from the Pakistan Muslim League-F, whereas two members of the same party are ministers.
Our Staff Reporter in Karachi adds: Dr Mirza has termed MQM’s adverse reaction over his speech the result of a ‘misunderstanding’, alleging that media reports had not reflected the true perspective of his statement, but highlighted only a part of it which had conveyed a wrong message.
Talking to journalists after attending the Sindh Assembly session, he said the misunderstanding had arisen because media personnel had highlighted those portions of the speech which could aggravate the situation. However, he said, he had made a clarification, so the misunderstanding ought to have been removed.
The minister, who left the house at the fag end of the sitting, appeared in a good mood, musing over a warm reception accorded to him by thumping of desks and slogans of ‘Jeay Bhutto’ on his arrival in the assembly.
Dr Mirza said if he was removed from the ministry he would accept the decision for the sake of democracy and his party and would continue to serve it as a worker.
He said it did not befit MQM’s leaders to allege that sometimes he was under the influence.
The minister said he had discussed his assertions with Governor Ishratul Ibad.
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