PML hawks ‘fed up’ with MQM demands: CM’s ouster won’t be sought
By Ahmed Hassan
ISLAMABAD, July 30: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) is unlikely to seek replacement of Sindh Chief Minister Dr Ghulam Arbab Rahim at Tuesday’s meeting of its leaders with President Gen Pervez Musharraf, party sources say.
The party, on assurance that its grievances against the chief minister and the federal bureaucracy will be redressed, has already agreed to withdraw resignations of its ministers and advisers submitted on Friday.
The chief minister is expected to arrive here on Monday. He will be meeting the leadership of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League and power-brokers and seek their support.
Sources said the MQM had complaints against the federal bureaucracy. Recently, Communications Minister Shamim Siddiqui was summoned by the MQM leadership to London where he complained against National Highway Authority chairman Gen Farrukh Javed. He also put on record his displeasure over the appointment of Mr Arshad Khan as chief of Pakistan Post.
Minister of State for Religious Affairs Dr Aamir Liaquat Hussain has not been comfortable with the secretary of the ministry for quite some time and has registered his complaint before ‘the competent authority’.
According to sources in the religious affairs ministry, although Dr Hussain is out of the capital most of the time apparently owing to his engagements with TV programmes, he makes ‘unreasonable’ demands which at times are declined.
As for the MQM’s tussle with the chief minister, according to political analysts here, Arbab Rahim has proved to be a tough nut to crack. Besides, they said, he enjoyed full support of party leaders as well as President Musharraf.
The MQM’s major grievances relate to the chief minister’s stance on encroachments in Karachi, delay in disposal of summaries by the chief minister and ‘hurdles’ in giving jobs to deserving people.
On the other hand, the PML leadership is under pressure to take a tough position at the meeting on Tuesday, the party sources said
The hawks in the party, they said, were convinced that the MQM’s demands would never end and that it would part ways with the ruling coalition in the 2007 general elections.
The hawks are of the view that the government should dissolve the Sindh assembly and impose governor’s rule in case the MQM does not come to terms.
A senior League leader said a party worker had volunteered to move the court against the expected withdrawal of MQM’s resignations by seeking a ruling on legal position of these resignations once they had been submitted in original.
The PML believes it is a fit case for suo motu action by the Supreme Court since the MQM had caused a political turmoil.
The party leaders feel that the exit of the MQM from the coalition may cause a softening in the attitude of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and the Pakistan People’s Party which were disturbed by the alleged excesses of the MQM.
