KARACHI: The chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam – F (JUI-F), Maulana Fazlur Rehman, reached Karachi Monday evening where he is scheduled to hold talks with the disgruntled Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leaders who resigned from Parliament last week in protest over excesses committed during the Rangers-led security operation in Karachi.

Fazl has been tasked to sooth the MQM lawmakers and convince them to take back their resignations. He is expected to hold a meeting with MQM officials tomorrow at Nine Zero.

Read: JUI-F chief tasked to woo MQM lawmakers back to parliament.

The JUI-F chief had earlier said MQM’s actions could cause a political crisis and that he will make efforts to defuse the situation, and will consult constitutional experts before approaching MQM.

Talking to reporters after arriving in Karachi on Monday, the JUI-F chief said he was hopeful that the MQM would take back its decision of leaving assemblies.

“I wouldn’t have come to Karachi if I had lost hope,” said Fazlur Rehman at the Jinnah International Airport.

MQM chief Altaf Hussain had earlier invited Fazl to the party's headquarters in Karachi over a telephonic conversation Saturday. Both leaders had agreed to begin a process of dialogue to thrash out a solution to the crisis that has resulted in light of MQM lawmakers' resignations.

“The MQM leader has accepted Maulana Fazl as a negotiator to resolve this issue,” Jan Achakzai, a spokesman for the JUI-F, had said earlier.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had also requested the JUI-F chief to hold talks with MQM's leadership in an attempt to bring them back to Parliament and the Sindh Assembly.

After arriving in Karachi, Fazl said it was important for political stability in the country that MQM legislators return to assemblies. The Maulana also said that the operation in Karachi should be “impartial,” adding that MQM's reservations should be removed.

MQM lawmakers had simultaneously submitted their resignations in the National Assembly, Senate and the Sindh Assembly on Wednesday, citing reservations over the Rangers-led operation in Karachi. The party claims its workers are being illegally detained and killed under the garb of Karachi's security operation.

Take a look: MQM lawmakers tender resignations.