HYDERABAD, Oct 12: Crossing the Rubicon was difficult, and at times painful, but there is no turning back now.

The rechecking of rejected votes, already being done in the offices of the returning officers, would not make much of a difference on some controversial seats.

Political pundits have already started talking about a hung parliament at the Centre. The fate of the Sindh Assembly also appears to be the same.

In the absence of the likes of the late Jam Sadiq Ali, political analysts believe that it would be difficult to forge a minority government in Sindh.

The absence of Benazir Bhutto, the sole unifying factor, has inflicted a telling blow on the party, and so has the over-confidence on the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

The PPP has lost many of its traditional seats in the interior of Sindh, including PS-52 (Hyderabad-X).

This constituency was carved out of the former NA-171 (Hyderabad-V), previously contested by Benazir Bhutto herself in 1997 election.

An independent candidate, Dr Irfan Gul Magsi, has defeated the PPP’s Imdad Ali Pitafi.

Similarly, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement lost two of its traditional seats from Hyderabad — NA-220 and PS-45.

The loss of PS-45 can be termed traumatic for the Muttahida as it had never lost this provincial assembly seat since 1988.

This time, the Muttahida has won only four provincial assembly seats in the 15 districts of the interior of Sindh — three from Hyderabad city and one from Mirpurkhas city.

Notwithstanding the tremendous setback suffered by both the PPP and the Muttahida, they retain their position as the leading parties in Sindh.

The PPP has won 51 while the Muttahida bagged 31 provincial assembly seats.

Further break-up of the polls shows that the SDA-NA won 12 seats, the PML-Q 11, the PML-F 10, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) 10, the MQM (Haqiqi) one and the independent five seats in the election.

The PPP has only two options open before it — to sit on the opposition benches, which it will hate to do or enter into an alliance.

Entering into alliances is the name of the game in our politics. The question is: “Alliance with whom?”

The PPP appears to be on the horns of a dilemma: It simply cannot be seen entering into alliance with the MMA or the SDA-NA.

The SDA-NA was formed with the sole objective of keeping the PPP out of the political arena.

Even assuming that nothing is impossible in politics, the total number of seats won by the two parties do not constitute the requisite simple majority needed for formation of the government.

Same applies to the other parties — the PML-Q and the PML-F unless, of course, the three parties, the PPP and two factions of PML agree to join on a single platform. This again appears to be an impossibility.

So, the only option open before the PPP appears to be to approach the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. A bitter pill, indeed.

The MQM chief, Altaf Hussain, has been attacking Benazir Bhutto and PPP left, right and centre.

The rhetorical principles and ‘principled stands’ of the politicians can be thrown to the winds when it comes to forming governments. It is not uncommon in politics.

Ironically, a party expounding ideas of extreme left (ANP) and another expressing far right ideals (JUI) were obliged to join hands to form coalition governments in the NWFP and Balochistan in the 70s.

The PPP and the Muttahida have already worked together following 1988 general elections and there is no reason why they cannot work together now.

After all the MQM and JSQM have absolved each other of everything in the broader interest of Sindh.

Similarly, the PPP and PML-N — bitter rivals in the past — are eager to work together.

It will be in the interest of Sindh if the PPP and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement were to adopt a positive approach and mend their fences.

The decision, however, will have to be taken by the two leaders abroad — Benazir Bhutto and Altaf Hussain — within the next couple of weeks.

According to reports, the chairman of the People’s Party Parliamentarians, Makhdoom Mohammad Amin Faheem, has already held discussions with the MQM chief, Altaf Hussain, on the issue.

However, the outcome of the talks is yet to be made public.

Guessing games will continue till the decision is made by the two parties.

A Muttahida leader, Kanwar Khalid Younus, evaded the question whether the Muttahida was prepared to work together with the PPP.

He simply said that he was not in a position to say anything, adding that the Muttahida would “definitely cooperate with parties having a parallel and liberal philosophy.”

Nisar Khuhro, however, could not be reached for comments in this regards.