KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement handed over resignations of its 51 members of the Sindh Assembly to Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani on Wednesday.

Forty-one legislators, including Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly Khwaja Izharul Hasan and MQM parliamentary party leader Syed Sardar Ahmad, called on the speaker in his chamber and submitted their resignations.

Resignations of 10 other MPAs, who are out of Karachi, were also handed over to the speaker.

Talking to newsmen after submitting the resignations, MQM leaders said the “minus Altaf formula” would never be acceptable to them. They said they were going back to people who had elected them because “we have failed to solve their problems”.

Khwaja Izhar said supporting the PPP for five years was a mistake. The MQM cooperated with the PPP for the sake of democracy and to honour the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto.

He said his party tried to remove the gap between rural and urban areas of the province, but the Sindh government widened the gulf.

The MQM had come out of parliamentary politics, but it would remain among the “parliament of people”, the Muttahida leader added.

He said being leader of the Karachi operation, Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah was responsible for arrests or disappearance of MQM workers and their extra-judicial killings.

He said whenever the PPP was in trouble it sought the MQM’s support. Only a month ago when the NAB and FIA started investigation, the PPP extended invitation to the MQM to join the Sindh government, he recalled.

He said PML-N and PTI members of the Sindh Assembly had their “vested interests” in survival of the provincial government.

Syed Sardar Ahmad said there was no use of remaining in parliamentary politics after the MQM failed to stop arrests of its workers even after protests in and outside the assembly.

Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani told newsmen that when they called on him he requested the MQM legislators not to resign. “I am not in a hurry to take a decision on the resignations,” he said in reply to a question.

He said he would try to persuade the MPAs to withdraw their resignations because “we would like to work together for the betterment of the province”.

The speaker said resignations by 51 legislators would certainly result in a vacuum. The MQM had given 19 reasons and if the government addressed their concern, they could take back resignations, he added. He said if the MQM did not reconsider its decision he would ensure that the resignations were not given under pressure and call every lawmaker, if needed, in person to verify his / her signature.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2015

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