December 1, 2002	Sunday	Ramazan 25,1423

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KARACHI, Nov 30: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement and People’s Party Parliamentarians agreed on Saturday to continue dialogue aimed at the formation of a government in Sindh.

The meeting was held at the residence of Dr Asim of Dr Ziauddin University.

According to sources, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Nisar Khuhro and Naveed Qamar participated in the meeting; the MQM was represented by its deputy convener Dr Farooq Sattar, Nasreen Jaleel, and Syed Sardar Ahmed.

Both sides tried to downplay the outcome of the meeting. However, some insiders believed that discussions were focused on the situation which had developed owing to the postponement of the Sindh Assembly session.

Both wanted the session to be convened as soon as possible.

The PPP has described the MQM’s decision to sit on the opposition benches as its democratic right.

Both, the PPP and MQM, had claimed the top slot. The MQM had even mustered PML-F support for the purpose, but in a dramatic move it decided to withdraw support to Jamali government which triggered off a whole new ballgame of political realignment.

However, analysts were attaching importance to today’s meeting in view of the MQM’s decision not only to sit on the opposition benches but to also abstain from voting in the elections for the speaker, deputy speaker and the chief minister in the Sindh Assembly.

It may be pointed out that the MQM and PPP had had high- profile meetings prior to the election of the speaker and deputy speaker of the National Assembly, and that of the prime minister.

But the MQM chose to side with the PML-Q.

The meeting is also being termed “bargaining ploy” visa-a-vis the Jamali government, until the Sindh Assembly was convened and the leader of the House elected.