ISLAMABAD: The Mutta­hida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has agreed to reconsider its decision of quitting the legislatures after the government assured the party that a committee will be formed to redress its grievances.

“Since the government is ready to remove MQM’s grievances due to which the party members had resigned from the assemblies, the Muttahida has also given the assurance that it will reconsider its decision of resignations,” JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman told reporters outside the Prime Minister House on Monday night.

The Maulana, who played the role of a mediator between the government and the MQM, made the announcement in the presence of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and the MQM’s Parliamentary Leader in the National Assembly, Dr Farooq Sattar, and other Muttahida leaders after marathon meetings that continued almost throughout the day at the PM House.

The JUI-F chief said both sides had agreed on the formation of “Grievance Redressal Committee (GRC)”, which would look into grievances of the MQM and try to resolve them while remaining within the limits of the constitution and other laws. A declaration has also been agreed upon by the two sides in this regard.

Govt ready to form committee to address party’s grievances

He said the process of constituting the committee would start on Tuesday. But he did not say who would form the committee and decide its modalities.

Sources in the MQM told Dawn that another meeting between the party and the government would be held on Tuesday to discuss the committee’s composition and terms of reference. They said the party wanted inclusion of retired judges, senior journalists, human rights activists and people with good reputation from different sections of society in the committee. The sources said the MQM would have no objection to names from the government side.

Farooq Sattar told reporters that his party had presented to the prime minister a document containing 19 grievances and told him that the MQM lawmakers had resigned from the assemblies because of these issues. He reiterated his party’s position that it was not against the operation against criminals in Karachi, but he said it seemed that it was aimed at targeting the MQM.

“We also have a zero-tolerance towards criminals. But now a doubt has been created that only one political party is being made target of the operation,” he said, adding that it had now become a human rights issue.

Mr Sattar claimed that 146 MQM activists had been missing since the launch of the operation two years ago and over 40 were extra-judicially killed.

Other points, he said, included an “undemocratic ban” on live telecast of MQM chief Altaf Hussain’s speeches, alleged official patronage of Haqiqi faction of the party in Karachi, “media trial of the party” and target killing of its activists. He said justice demanded that the target killers of MQM workers be arrested.

Dr Sattar said the ban on Mr Hussain’s speeches was a violation of Article 19 of the Constitution which guaranteed freedom of speech and expression to every citizen. He said that even recorded interviews and statements of the MQM chief were not being allowed to be telecast.

Ishaq Dar said the government believed that “political stability” in the country was a must for the success of the ongoing military operation against terrorists as well as for economic stability.

He said that over the past two years the prime minister had taken all political forces into confidence on all major issues, including the Operation Zarb-i-Azab, 21st Amendment allowing the setting up of military courts, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and the National Action Plan developed after the terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar.

But, he added, no party can do wrongful acts with impunity. The government had even held talks with the PTI when its lawmakers had submitted their resignations and now it wanted the MQM to continue to play its role in parliament, Mr Dar said. “The GRC will resolve the grievances of other parties, too.”

Earlier in the day, the MQM delegation had a number of meetings, including one with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Soon after their arrival in Islamabad, the MQM leaders had a meeting with Maulana Fazl, who later accompanied them to the PM House where they first met a government team comprising Ishaq Dar and Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid.

JUI-F leaders Akram Durrani and Maulana Ameer Zaman also attended the meetings.

After meeting the prime minister, the sources said, the MQM leaders had held their own meeting and then went into a session with the government team.

The MQM delegation comprised Farooq Sattar, Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif, Kanwar Naveed Jamil, Rehan Hashmi, Waseem Akhtar and Shabbir Qaimi.

The MQM is the fourth largest party in the 342-seat National Assembly with 24 MNAs, the third in the 104-seat Senate with eight senators and the second in the 168-seat Sindh Assembly with 51 members. All its legislators had submitted their resignations on Aug 12 in protest against the alleged political victimisation of the party in Karachi by Rangers.

On Friday, the MQM alleged that Prime Minister Sharif had “sabotaged” JUI-F chief’s efforts by not meeting the MQM leaders during his visit to Karachi and asked the government to accept the resignation of its lawmakers.

However, the party later agreed to hold formal talks with the government after Maulana Fazl talked to Altaf Hussain by telephone.

Talking to Dawn, JUI-F spokesman Jan Achakzai said the political crisis appeared to have been resolved after marathon meetings held on Monday under the supervision of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the Maulana.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2015

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