MQM-P separation: new games old tactics

Political parties have been engaged in a heated war of words and blame game over the administration’s general failure in dealing with the catastrophic conditions.

In last year’s general polls, Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) suffered its worst seat count in Karachi, winning only four national assembly seats from the metropolis out of a total of 21.

After the election, it had to form an electoral alliance with the winning Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to stay relevant despite their ideological differences.

MQM’s history exposes their indignations to playing political games over Karachi problems while the city of over 20 million people continues to suffer. 

MQM-P’s Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui in his hard thumping announcement of resignation from his post as Minister for Information Technology in the presence of senior party’s leaders lashed out at the federal government for backing its promises under the agreements after forming a collation.

While, MQM doesn’t consider Farog Nasim’s post as Federal Law Minister as part of their requested demand and also wants one more Ministry, besides other offers including development funds for the metropolis.

However, after the announcement of separation the MQM-P kept the option open by saying that the party was not abandoning from the PTI government despite its reservations.

In a bid to shake up Prime Minister Imran Khan, Chairman  Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari offered Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) to join Sindh government.

It would be interesting to see with a long history of mistrust between PPP and MQM, how Bilawal initiates the dialogue with the MQM.

Nonetheless, the offer forced the prime minister to send his special team to meet the MQM-P leadership to address the serious grievances of his ally.

Despite their ideological differences between MQM-P and PTI the MQM believe that its mandate was stolen. On the other hand, PTI claims the MQM lost its popularity because of its political violence history.

MQM-Pakistan which after 2016, had separated itself with MQM-London and its founder Altaf Hussain. The formation of Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) and another faction led by former mayor, Dr Farooq Sattar has further weakened the party in the metropolis.

However, politics is the game of possibilities and the changing political scenario has once again brought MQM-P into the limelight at the federal cabinet.

In the current situation, MQM-P has more opportunities from both sides one from the Sindh government to amend the Sindh Local Government Act and augment powers of the mayor, while another opportunity; they expect the PTI government to fulfill the promises which had made in a written agreement after the general election.

Since PTI’s win in the general election, it was speculated that small parties like MQM-P would play their old tactics to gain their own agenda. MQM-P’s latest move is no surprise. While PTI’s leaders  are also positive that MQM won’t leave the federal cabinet.