THE stars had aligned for Kamran Tessori the moment his party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, sent his name as its nominee for the office of the Sindh governor. The issue, which had been lingering on for the past five months between the ruling coalition partners at the Centre — because the stars did not align for Nasreen Jalil who was the first choice of the MQM-P for gubernatorial office — took less than a fortnight to settle for once and for all.

President Arif Alvi appointed Mr Tessori — a gold trader who was only last month returned to the MQM-P which had expelled him more than four years ago — as the new governor of Sindh on Sunday and he took oath of office on Monday.

But the announcement followed a storm of criticism at the MQM-P from its friends and foes who minutely examined the credentials of Mr Tessori and viewed this appointment within one month of his return to the party as the last straw on the proverbial camel’s back.

And it seems the entire MQM-P leadership suffered a shock over the announcement on a national holiday as it took the party four hours to own that Mr Tessori was indeed its nominee. It released a statement mentioning that the MQM-P had first sent five names — Nasreen Jalil, Amir Khan, Wasim Akhtar, Amir Chishti and Kishwar Zehra — to the federal government, but due to an impasse it sent two more names — Abdul Wasim and Kamran Tessori — for the province’s top office and the president chose the latter. It hoped that Mr Tessori would work for the betterment of the province and play his role in bringing the federal and provincial governments closer.

But this isn’t so simple.

In mid-September, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government had conveyed to the MQM-P that Ms Jalil’s name had been finalised for the post and soon the president would approve her appointment as governor. Based on this information, on Sept 22, senior MQM-P leader and federal minister Aminul Haque had told reporters at the Karachi Press Club that Ms Jalil was the party’s nominee for the governorship and “very soon” the party would get the slot.

But things changed afterwards and the MQM-P was specifically asked (not by the PML-N) to send two names, including one of Kamran Tessori, so that agencies concerned could vet them and submit their findings to the federal government. The core committee of the MQM-P (it does exist within its coordination committee) decided to send the names of Mr Tessori and Abdul Wasim and as expected the former got required clearance from all quarters.

When a senior MQM leader was contacted for his comments, the first thing he asked was whether I would be brave enough to name Mr Tessori’s “sponsors”. He was replied in the affirmative only if he’s willing to name them on the record. After a little of bit thinking, he, like almost every other leader whom Dawn spoke to, chose to talk on the condition of anonymity.

“Just look at the congratulatory messages Tessori has received on social media from all those leaders who have nothing in common except their relationship with the establishment,” he says.

He was right. The appointment of Mr Tessori was welcomed by not only MQM nemesis Syed Mustafa Kamal of the Pak Sarzameen Party, but also by staunch opponent Faisal Vawda of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, disgruntled leader Dr Farooq Sattar and senior PPP leader and local government minister Nasir Shah. Former Karachi mayor Wasim Akhtar, on whom Mr Tessori has levelled serious allegations in 2018, also congratulated party workers over his appointment as the governor.

Even the Altaf Hussain-led MQM issued a statement in which its central leader Mustafa Azizabadi criticised the MQM-P for “selling” the rights of Mohajirs and questioning the merit of Mr Tessori, but refrained from pointing an accusing finger towards the establishment.

However, there are reports that those active in any of the MQM factions and who criticised Mr Tessori’s appointment and linked it with the powers that be on social media got messages to either get in line and delete their posts or be prepared to face the wrath of powers that be.

What went wrong with Nasreen Jalil

Senior MQM leader Khawaja Izharul Hasan was reported to have told a TV channel that the party was not aware as to why the “Presidency” rejected the five names including Ms Jalil for the governor’s office.

Sources say Ms Jalil was not acceptable to the powers because she’s an independent-minded person and it’s not easy to influence or pressure her. The second reason they cited for the rejection of Ms Jalil’s name was that MQM’s rivals painted her in their closed door meetings with certain quarters as a person sympathetic to MQM founder Altaf Hussain.

“An impression had been created that Nasreen Baji was not suited for the job because she had written to the Indian high commission back in 2016 to highlight the injustices with Mohajirs. This is not true since many other leaders when in opposition had written similar letters to all embassies and high commissions in Pakistan. Being an independent woman was her only crime,” says an MQM insider.

Former MQM convener Nadeem Nusrat, who is heading a Washington-based advocacy group the Voice of Karachi, states: “We must understand that Sindh’s governorship is merely ceremonial. No matter who is there, urban Sindh’s chronic political, economic and civic issues will remain unresolved. It is not a secret that urban Sindh is suffering from a serious political crisis.”

In a thinly veiled reference to the establishment’s interventions, Mr Nusrat, however, says all previous experiments had failed and an outside the box solution was the need of the hour.

“We need to bring the disgruntled urban population back into the mainstream politics while protecting the national interests at the same time,” he states.

Silver lining

However, some MQM people see a silver lining in the whole episode. They say this might be the first step towards an establishment-brokered deal to unite rival factions.

“They have made promises with us to get resolved all burning issues of Karachi, including the population census and delimitation before the next general election. If the Election Commission postpones the local government election, we will be given the post of Karachi administrator,” another MQM-P leader says.

He says being the governor, Mr Tessori can facilitate rival factions to sit together away from the prying eyes of the media at the Governor House, which can be used as a neutral venue acceptable to all sides. “This way those claiming to be neutral can remain seen neutral.”

While an establishment-brokered deal in 2017 between the PSP and MQM-P did not last even for 24 hours, success of any similar, but a wider arrangement to accommodate all splinter groups on one platform appears slim if not impossible.

Interesting times ahead.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2022