KARACHI: In what appears to be the beginning of a thaw in strained relations between two major parties in the province, a senior leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement said on Friday his party was ready for talks with the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party provided it changes its manner of politics.

“Our doors are open...we have contacts with [PPP] but they have to change their political approach if any leader of the PPP wants any kind of talks,” MQM leader Qamar Mansoor told reporters outside Governor House after a meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Accompanied by MQM’s Haider Abbas Rizvi, Mr Mansoor claimed there was no rift between the MQM and the PPP but some inappropriate remarks made by Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on the floor of the Sindh Assembly caused disquiet.

He recalled that former president and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari had visited the MQM’s Nine Zero headquarters for the sake of reconciliation. In politics, doors were never shut, he added.

About the meeting with the prime minister, he said the PM accepted his party’s demand that a commission be set up to probe ‘extrajudicial killings’ of MQM workers.

He said the PM berated the Sindh police chief and reminded him he was a representative of the federal government.

Mr Rizvi said the prime minister expressed displeasure at Sindh police and also directed that no one should be arrested in Karachi by policemen in plain clothes.

He thanked the premier for listening to the bereaved families of MQM workers who had recently fallen prey to ‘extrajudicial killings’ and remarked it should have been done by the chief minister.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2015

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