KARACHI: Leaders of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) – former coalition partners in Sindh and at the centre – Friday denied reports of any potential merger of the two parties to form a coalition government in the province.
Talking to Dawn.com, MQM leader Haider Abbas Rizvi ruled out any such possibility saying his party did not require back-door contacts with any political party. “MQM joining Sindh or the federal government is utterly out of the question,” he said.
“Meeting with a political leader should not be considered as a move to join the government,” he added referring to the meeting of his party leaders with Asif Ali Zardari in Dubai.
A delegation of MQM comprising the party’s Rabita (Coordination) Committee convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Dr Nadeem Nusrat, Anees Qaimkhani and Governor Sindh Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan met with the former president in the UAE's financial capital.
Rizvi said the MQM was seeking good working relations with all parties including PPP, Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N).
Acknowledging television channels’ report of a telephonic conversation between Dr Farooq Sattar and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, he said the party would soon apprise the minister with its reservations regarding the Karachi situation.
The MQM has termed the ongoing targeted operation of security agencies in Karachi as biased and one that targets it in particular. It claims the operation has been launched to arrest MQM activists and office bearers rather than outlaws and terrorists.
MQM’s spokesman also denied the news report regarding the party joining the Sindh government.
“The party has not decided to join the government. There is no truth in any such news report. As far as meetings between political leaders are concerned they are a part of the political and democratic process,” he said in a statement issued on Friday night.
Meanwhile, former interior minister Rehman Malik of PPP also denied that his party offered the MQM to join the government in Sindh during the Dubai meeting.
In a tweet, Malik said the subject of a coalition government in Sindh was not part of the meeting in which he said he assisted the former president. Zardari's sister Faryal Talpur was also present at the meeting.
Describing the meeting as “pleasant”, Malik said the “MQM delegation conveyed best wishes from Altaf Bhai” (MQM chief Altaf Hussain).
“Both parties agreed to have a qualitative level of working relationship,” he said in another tweet.
In a latest development, Zardari directed Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah to address all reservations of the MQM, DawnNews reported at the conclusion of the meeting in Dubai.
Calling MQM chief Altaf Hussain a true Pakistani, Zardari said he would soon meet with him at his residence in London. He said the PPP was willing to continue following its policy of reconciliation.
