Muttahida again supports Jamali: No conditions attached
By Shamim-ur-Rahman
KARACHI, Dec 3: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement on Tuesday announced its “unconditional” support to the Jamali government “to save the democratic dispensation”.
Though support to the government was “unconditional,” yet the MQM at the same time demanded of the prime minister to ensure that the Muttahida get chief ministership in Sindh and redress the “injustices” meted out to the party by the previous governments.
The surprise decision was made public by the deputy convener of the MQM coordination committee, Dr Farooq Sattar, at a news conference at Nine-Zero.
“After due consideration and to prevent the imposition of governor’s rule in the province and frustrate conspiracies of anti-democratic forces, the MQM coordination committee has decided to recall its decision of sitting on the opposition benches and extend support to the Mir Zafarullah Jamali’s government in the centre, while exercising its democratic right to form government in the province,” Dr Farooq Sattar told reporters.
Less than a week ago the MQM had withdrawn its support to the Jamali government and had decided to sit on the opposition benches in the National and Sindh assemblies. This development had led to the postponement of the Sindh Assembly session.
The MQM decision, which had sent jitters in the Jamali camp, was aimed at registering its protest against the reversal the party had to face from the no-go areas at the hands of the rival faction, allegedly enjoying support of a powerful section of the Establishment.
Analysts said that the MQM decision was in fact a reflection of the “feeling of being left out after the PML-Q initiated coalition talks with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and also succeeded in entering into an alliance in Balochistan and was very near to a similar deal in the Centre.”
When the MQM had taken the decision to sit in opposition and to abstain from election process in the Sindh Assembly, analysts had maintained that the party was using it as a bargaining ploy and very soon it would come back in the fold of the ruling coalition, just as it supported the PML-Q nominee despite the fact that its chief Shujaat Hussain was a part of the government which let loose a reign of terror on the MQM activists.
On Nov 27 Dr Farooq Sattar had said that reversal of MQM’s decision was not possible “until writ of Gen Pervez Musharraf and Mir Zafarullah Jamali becomes obvious.”
He had said that in view of this situation “Muttahida is constrained to believe that writ of Gen Musharraf and his close associates has failed against that powerful group within the Establishment which had propped up such political parties in the recent elections which are not sincere with the people.”
However, when on Tuesday he was categorically asked to state whether that writ had been established, Dr Farooq Sattar was evasive and said “writ of the government is also necessary but restoration and continuation of democratic process is equally important.”
He said that if the writ of the government was not restored then democratic dispensation would be the looser.
The MQM deputy convener said that on Nov 27 the party had decided to sit on the opposition benches to express solidarity with thousands of the affected families who could not be resettled in their homes in the Haqiqi-dominated areas, despite Gen Musharraf’s directives.
He said that no fresh assurances were received and the MQM was banking on Gen Musharraf’s statement with regard to the resettlement of affected families.
However, he said that now it was encouraging for the MQM that the government was making effort to eliminate the no-go areas and to enable resettlement of the affected families, free from fear of Haqiqi activists.
In view of this development, the MQM, which had unconditionally supported Mir Zafarullah Jamali in election for the leader of the House, has decided to do the same again to save democratic dispensation, said Dr Sattar.
He also demanded immediate convening of the Sindh Assembly session.
Dr Farooq Sattar said that the MQM’s decision of Nov 27 had set in motion a political crisis in the country, particularly in Sindh, where elected representatives were not allowed to take oath while in the other three provinces governments had been formed.
He said that by taking advantage of the situation some anti-democratic elements hatched a conspiracy against convening of assembly session and create a situation to provide justification for imposing governor’s rule.
He said that the MQM would not be a party to strangulation of democracy and imposition of governor’s rule.
Asked whether the MQM would change its decision again if its demand pertaining to no-go areas was not satisfactorily addressed, Dr Sattar said that he had already spelt out the context in which these decisions were taken.
When a reporter asked what he meant by demanding Prime Minister Jamali to ensure that MQM’s chief minister was elected in Sindh, he said that this demand was made because there was a commonality of views between the GNA and the MQM. He nevertheless emphasised that the MQM’s options were open.
