KARACHI: Retired Gen Pervez Musharraf’s meeting with a Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader in Dubai and a “plus-one formula” proposed by a leader of the former military dictator’s All Pakistan Muslim League have sparked speculation that the powers that be still want a unified MQM, albeit under the leadership of one of their own.

Top Musharraf aide Ahmed Raza Kasuri of the All Pakistan Muslim League put forward his “plus-one formula” in a video released recently on social media. In the video, he asks various factions of the MQM to accept Gen Musharraf as the leader of a unified MQM in order to “save” the party and its role in national mainstream politics.

Mr Kasuri told Dawn that he had taken the former president into confidence before announcing his plus-one formula and that the MQM factions he had referred to were Dr Farooq Sattar-led MQM-Pakistan, Mustafa Kamal-led Pak Sarzameen Party and all “pro-Pakistan groups minus Altaf Hussain”.

Mr Kasuri says in the video that if the MQM factions accepted Gen Musharraf as their leader, no one would call them Indian agents since a former army chief would be their leader. Secondly, he says, it would grant MQM access to other parts of the country.

Yet the video failed to create a ripple in the national political scene until reports of a meeting between Gen Musharraf and MQM’s Khwaja Izhar-ul-Hasan, leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, in Dubai surfaced on Tuesday. TV channels aired the news with a picture of Khwaja Izhar with the former president and claimed that the opposition leader had delivered an important message from MQM-Pakistan head Dr Farooq Sattar to Gen Musharraf.

The MQM-Pakistan, however, issued a statement explaining that the meeting had been an informal one and had taken place over a meal with mutual friends. It confirmed that the country’s political situation, development issues in Karachi and powers of elected local government representatives had come under discussion.

MQM leader Amin-ul-Haq told Dawn that the meeting took place over a week ago in Dubai and Khwaja Izhar had briefed the party leadership on it.

About Mr Kasuri’s plus-one formula, he said the MQM had no place for a former military dictator as the party would continue to follow democratic principles and take decisions in consultation with its office-bearers and workers.

The Altaf Hussain-led MQM also rejected Mr Kasuri’s formula. London-based Wasay Jalil tweeted that the MQM did not need Pervez Musharraf and that there were no factions in the MQM except those created by the establishment.

However, sources said behind-the-scene attempts had been made to replace Mr Hussain for the last one-and-a-half years. These efforts, by certain quarters, had gained momentum following a split in the party when Dr Sattar-led MQM dissociated itself from the MQM-London.

Sources said an emissary of Gen Musharraf met the MQM-Pakistan senior leadership in Karachi last month to discuss a scenario with the former president as their head.

Mr Kasuri told Dawn that his “plus-one formula” had gone viral on Tuesday but he had actually released the video much earlier. “The meeting between Khwaja Izhar and Gen Musharraf took place after my proposal,” he added.

“It [the proposal] is my brainchild...I conceived it and I discussed it with Gen Musharraf,” he said. “I have given a concept. Its implementation will take time.”

MQM sources told Dawn that the former president believed that he could lead a unified MQM. “We sent Khwaja Izhar [to Dubai] who politely clarified that our support base would not agree with the idea,” an MQM leader said on condition of anonymity.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2016