KARACHI, Aug 5: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Sunday flew down to Karachi to brief his staunch ally, the Muttahida Quami Movement, on the ruling coalition’s secretly planned move towards his re-election from the existing assemblies on Sept 15, quite a few participants of the meeting told Dawn.

The president, casually dressed in a striped shirt and a sports jacket, is believed to have told the MQM delegation at the Governor’s House that no article or clause of the constitution bars his re-election as president.

“I have absolute legal and constitutional justification for contesting the presidential election,” he said, alluding to a relevant judgment of the Supreme Court.

Well-placed sources told Dawn that at first a four-member MQM delegation led by coordination committee deputy convener Dr Farooq Sattar called on President Musharraf. Other three members were Federal Minister for Shipping and Ports Babar Ghauri, Sindh Minister for Local Government Mohammad Hussain and Hyderabad Nazim Kanwar Naveed.Later, the president met the parliamentary delegation of the MQM. All MNAs, MPAs, senators and federal and provincial ministers belonging to the MQM attended the two-hour-long meeting. Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad was also present.

Analysts closely observing the ruling coalition’s statements on the president’s re-election point out that the situation will become clear only after the announcement of the polling schedule by the Election Commission.

The sources said the president did not indicate that he was contemplating doffing his much-maligned uniform.

They added that while the president was in an expansive mood – and spoke at length on the current political situation in the country, the Lal Masjid operation and the scourge of terrorism and extremism adversely impacting the country’s economic strength – he carefully skirted around the subject of the government’s contact with the leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party, especially his widely reported meeting with PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto in Abu Dhabi.The president said, rather cryptically, that there was a talk of “deal or dheel”, adding that the results of the next general election would clarify all such things.

He said the present set-up would continue and any change would depend on who emerged victorious from the next general election.

Dr Farooq Sattar told Dawn that the role of the MQM in national and provincial politics was also discussed and appreciated by the president.

Gen Musharraf apparently insisted that the MQM, blamed by the opposition for the May 12 violence, could not be banished from mainstream politics.

His reaffirmation of support for the MQM is being seen in the context of the criticism made by the opposition in the recently-concluded multi-party conference in London.

The president told the MQM delegation that he would launch a mass contact drive from Sept 13 to inform the people about the threats of extremism and Talibanisation.

After the meeting with the MQM delegation, Gen Musharraf drove to the Chief Minister’s House where he first met Pakistan Muslim League (Functional) leaders who were led By Speaker of the Sindh Assembly Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shan and included Imtiaz Shaikh.

He briefed them on recent political developments and the reason why he was insisting on getting himself re-elected from the existing assemblies in uniform. He was also assured of the political party’s unconditional support.

Gen Musharraf is now scheduled to meet ruling PML and Patriot leaders on Monday morning.