KARACHI, Jan 8: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement withdrew on Sunday night an ultimatum it had issued earlier in the day to quit the ruling coalition on Jan 14 if the government did not stop its ‘military operation’ in Balochistan by Jan 13 and did not drop the idea of building the Kalabagh dam.

A message received from the International Secretariat of the party in London said the decision to withdraw the ultimatum was taken after President Pervez Musharraf ‘assured’ MQM leader Altaf Hussain that no major dam would be built without consensus among all the provinces and “no action will be taken against the people of Balochistan, the army will not be deployed and most certainly no army action will be undertaken in the province”.

The MQM message also claimed that President Musharraf during a 45-minute telephonic conversation with Mr Hussain also assured him that an inquiry would be commissioned if any excesses had been committed against common people and exemplary punishment would be given to perpetrators, efforts would be made to find a political resolution to the Balochistan crisis and the devolution process would be speeded up to provide ‘total autonomy’ to the provinces.

According to an earlier MQM statement, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz called Mr Hussain and discussed issues of Balochistan and the Kalabagh dam and other political matters.

The MQM had earlier said that an extraordinary meeting of the coordination committee held simultaneously in Azizabid and the party’s international secretariat in London had decided that the MQM would quit the coalition government if the Balochistan operation was not stopped. MQM Convener Dr Imran Farooq presided over the session and the decision was endorsed by Mr. Hussain.

According to the MQM, Mr. Hussain urged the prime minister to stop the military operation and resolve the issue through dialogue.

He asked why had the government not implemented recommendations of a committee headed by Senator Mushahid Hussain and why had the dialogue with Baloch leaders been suspended.

Mr. Hussain also urged the prime minister to provide autonomy to the provinces, saying it was the only way to make the federation strong.

The MQM statement which issued the ultimatum said that Mr. Hussain, Dr Farooq and other members of the coordination committee had held talks with the authorities concerned, including the president and the prime minister, urging them not to launch any operation in Balochistan and not to insist on building the Kalabagh dam against the will of the people of Sindh.

As nothing came out of the talks, the statement said, the MQM decided that it would not be possible for it to remain in the government.