KARACHI, Feb 29: Despite serious reservations, the Karachi leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party supports the party’s dialogue initiative with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement to rid the province of the politics of confrontation and for the overall stability of the country.

This was stated by the provincial president of the PPP Syed Qaim Ali Shah in a news conference held at his residence on Friday. He was accompanied by N.D. Khan, a member of the PPP dialogue committee, Waqar Mehdi, additional information secretary of the Sindh PPP, Rashid Rabbani, Rafiq Engineer, Afaq Khan Shahid, Masroor Ahsan, Saeed Ghani and a host of other local party leaders.

But surprisingly Nafees Siddiqui, secretary-general of the PPP Sindh, was conspicuous by his absence. His name was originally included in the committee that met the MQM, but in view of strong criticism from some MQM leaders he stayed back under the PPP leadership’s directive.

Referring to the meeting with the MQM at Nine Zero on Thursday, Mr Shah said contact was established on the directives of the PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari following his telephonic conversation with MQM leader Altaf Hussain.

Mr Shah termed the exploratory meeting “positive” as both sides demonstrated the spirit of accommodation because they both felt confrontation in the past had plunged the people into a vicious cycle of insecurity, terrorism, unemployment and had distracted the focus of the government from issues like the NFC and provincial autonomy. He said the meeting took place despite serious reservations and petitions challenging the results of the Feb 18 elections.

He claimed that an overwhelming number of people had voted for the PPP in Sindh and even in Karachi, estranged and neutral people had voted for his party, which was effectively present in all the four provinces.Mr Shah said that Asif Zardari was following the agenda set by the slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto and was striving for a government of national consensus at the federal and provincial levels. He said that more meetings with the MQM were likely and the two sides might go into the details of “real” issues such as the NFC, provincial autonomy, etc, if sufficient goodwill was generated.

Responding to a question, he said the talks were not centred on the formation of the government in Sindh or at the centre. That stage may come later when the sides have generated enough goodwill.

He disagreed when a questioner suggested that the PPP should also talk to the parties that had gained in some parts of one or two districts, if it was talking to the MQM. He said that although the PPP wanted to take everyone on board, presence on a larger scale had to be taken into consideration.

When asked how the PPP was in league with the MQM when it had blamed it for the May 112 carnage, Syed Qaim Ali Shah said the government was then headed by former Sindh chief minister Arbab Rahim and it was the Q League that had made life miserable for PPP workers in the province, so the onus was on him and that was also the stance of the party. He said the FIRs would be registered and investigations would be conducted when the PPP formed the government. “Only after investigations would the responsibility be fixed,” he added. Analysts believe that this meeting took place not only due to the PPP’s desire to forge good relations with the MQM despite reservations expressed by the PML-N, but because of the role played by the American ambassador who convinced both sides to put their heads together and strengthen the democratic dispensation.