ISLAMABAD: Today Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) may be pondering long and hard over the reconciliatory gestures made by People’s Party but there was a time when it was keen to join the coalition led by the PPP, whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks has revealed.

According to a secret cable sent to Washington by the then US Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne W. Patterson, parliamentary leader of MQM Dr Farooq Sattar commented to the then visiting US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher on March 28, 2008 (three days after the newly-elected National Assembly voted Yousuf Raza Gilani as the prime minister) that in 2002 too his party wanted to work with the PPP. However, the MQM was forced to align with the PML-Q after the PPP spurned its “advances”.

Dr Sattar said his party was again eager to work with the PPP. But the PPP was not serious about taking the MQM on board, he regretted, accusing PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif of leading PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari up the garden path, according to the cable classified by the then deputy chief of mission in Islamabad, Peter W. Bodde.

Mr Sattar described the “marginalisation” of religio-political parties as the best outcome of the 2008 general election but thought that the conservative religious vote was “camouflaged” and went to the PML-N because of Nawaz Sharif’s alleged connections with slain Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and other extremists.

The MQM leader expressed concerns that Mr Sharif was attempting to take the PPP down that road too.

MNA Haider Abbas Rizvi and Sindh Assembly member Sardar Ahmed were part of the MQM delegation. “(Mr) Sattar commented that PPP co-chair Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif make strange bedfellows. (Mr) Sattar believes (Nawaz) Sharif wants to force elections in a year, so that he can become prime minister,” says the cable, adding: “The PPP could have formed a government without Nawaz (Sharif), (Mr) Sattar commented, but the Nawaz’s party succeeded in isolating the PPP by preventing the MQM from joining the new government.”

The cable quoted Mr Sattar as saying that the MQM had been ordered by party chief Altaf Hussein to respect the PPP mandate. “However, (Mr) Sattar worries the PPP is not serious about taking them on board as partners,” it says.

The cable reveals that the MQM had voted for Mr Gilani in the election of prime minister on its own and without any give-and-take with the PPP. “Its last minute decision to vote for PPP Prime Minister Gilani was a gesture of good faith,” the cable quotes Dr Sattar as telling Mr Boucher.

Mr Sattar stressed that even if the MQM remained in the opposition, it would be a constructive and positive opposition party and would support the PPP as long as it moved Pakistan in a positive direction and that “his party intends to vote issue-by-issue”.

“(Mr) Sattar explained that the MQM was attempting to distance itself from its violent reputation of the 1990s as it now hopes to be considered a legitimate and serious political party. He asked for support in addressing allegations by the US government that the MQM was a terrorist organisation,” says the cable.

The MQM leader told Mr Boucher that the party had sponsored fundraising campaigns for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the Southeast Asia tsunami and helped Nato bring relief goods to the Pakistani earthquake victims in 2005. “The MQM was the only party in Pakistan to hold a solidarity rally for the victims of September 11,” Mr Sattar said.