KARACHI, Aug 10: A monitoring mechanism to oversee the performance of the Sindh coalition government and attempt to address their grievances at provincial and federal levels was in the offing on the orders of President Gen Pervez Musharraf.
This was stated on Thursday by the parliamentary leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in the National Assembly, Dr Farooq Sattar, who had met Gen Musharraf at the Army House on Wednesday.
Federal Minister Baber Ghori, deputy parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly Mohammad Hussain and Hyderabad Nazim Kunwar Naved Jameel also attended the meeting.
President Musharraf had held two meetings with the MQM delegations on Wednesday and Thursday during which he listened to party’s reservations and acknowledged their veracity while assuring to resolve its genuine problems, Dr Sattar told Dawn.
He said that there would be a two-tier mechanism, one would deal with matters at the federal level while the other at provincial level. He did not spell out names or number of the people who would be given responsibilities, and said their number could vary depending on the nature of the problems.
In Sindh the core committee comprising members of both the sides would meet on regular basis. Wasim Akhtar, Mohammad Hussain and Kunwar Naved would represent the MQM while Nadir Leghari, Irfaullah Marwat and some other person would be engaged in the process from the other side.
The persons appointed by the president would monitor their performance and interaction, he added.
The committee would also deal with matters pertaining to the city government’s dispute over some prime land in Karachi, ban on unions in Sindh education department and government jobs.
This was the first meeting of an MQM delegation with President Musharraf since July 27 when the party had decided to pull out of the government in the centre and in Sindh, and on Aug 1 had boycotted the damage-control talks in Islamabad which the president had summoned.
Dr Sattar said that during the meeting with General Msuharraf on Wednesday his side had made it clear that MQM’s grievances were “not person specific” and had emphasised the need for a monitoring mechanism to asses the performance of coalition partners on daily basis.
According to Dr Sattar, President Musharraf gave the assurance that under the mechanism their demands and problems would be addressed.
