KARACHI: MQM, CM hold first meeting after patch-up
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, May 29: A delegation of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement led by Mr Babar Ghauri, the federal Minister for Transport and Shipping, called on Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Rahim at the CM’s House on Monday and exchanged views on matters of mutual interest.
This was the first meeting between the two sides after they were advised by President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad to inculcate a mutual working relationship by removing misunderstandings.
Adviser to the CM on Finance Mr M.A. Jalil and Nazim of Hyderabad District Mr Kanwar Naveed Jamil were the other members of the MQM team. Provincial ministers Mr Irfanullah Khan Marwat, Mr Nadir Akmal Leghari and Adviser Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi were also present at the meeting.Though formal communiqué about the outcome of the meeting was officially released, political analysts described the meeting as a serious effort to sort out the issues that had created differences between them.
Mr Ghauri, who had led the MQM delegation that held talks in Islamabad with President Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Secretary of the National Security Council Tariq Aziz a couple of days back, managed to persuade the MQM leadership to shun all differences with the chief minister and start afresh to ensure a better functioning of the coalition under the agreed upon power-sharing formula.
The significance of Monday’s meeting, the analysts pointed out, was that the members of the MQM team were those had played a key role in narrowing down the differences. Mr Kanwar Naveed Jamil had taken part in negotiations in Islamabad whereas Mr M. A. Jalil was a member of the committee constituted by the federal authorities in March to make recommendations for resolving the dispute and putting the relationship between the two key coalition partners on the right track.
Likewise, the analysts said, members of the chief minister’s team at the meeting were also the same who had accompanied him at the talks in Islamabad.
If considered to be a follow-up, the meeting may be regarded as the first step towards implementing the new set of proposals agreed upon by the two sides in Islamabad, according to the analysts.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Dr Arbab Rahim called on PML-F chief Pir Pagara at the Kingri House here on Monday.
After the meeting, which lasted more than half an hour, Dr Arbab told journalists that he had come to the Kingri House to seek blessings of Pir Pagara.
Dr Arbab presented a bouquet to Pir Pagara and expressed his gratitude for extending his party MPAs’ support during the crisis that had been created due to the differences with the MQM.
Informed sources told Dawn that the chief minister also brief the PML-F chief about his negotiations in Islamabad and about the understanding reached between him and the MQM.
