KARACHI: Ahead of its multiparty conference scheduled to be held on Tuesday (today), the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan for the first time made a party-level contact with its nemeses — the Pak Sarzameen Party and Mohajir Qaumi Movement, better known as the MQM-Haqiqi — on Monday and invited the leadership of the two breakaway factions to the planned event.

The MQM-P had on Sunday decided to hold an MPC on Aug 22 to discuss “conspiracies against the solidarity of Pakistan, elimination of corruption and empowerment of local governments”.

Teams of MQM leaders and lawmakers visited offices of Jamaat-i-Islami, Awami National Party, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, All Pakistan Muslim League and Pakistan Peoples Party, met their senior leaders and invited them to their MPC.

The party had already invited the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on Sunday evening.

The MQM leadership also phoned Jalal Mehmood Shah of the Sindh United Party, Ijazul Haq of the PML-Zia, Basharat Mirza of the PDP, Pervez Ali Shah of the PML-Q and some other parties to invite them to their event.

Observers are, however, attaching great significance to their meeting with the PSP leadership and Afaq Ahmed of the MQM-H.

PSP wants ‘the traitor’ isolated; Afaq plans to raise Mohajirs’ issues at MPC

The MQM-P sent its senior deputy convener Amir Khan, who comes second in the organisational hierarchy after Dr Farooq Sattar, with provincial lawmaker Faisal Sabzwari and others to meet the PSP and MQM-H leaders.

Although informal contacts had been made between the leadership of the MQM and PSP and on at least two different occasions, Dr Sattar and Mr Kamal, the MQM-P and PSP chiefs, had met each other, it was the first official contact between the two parties.

Though Amir Khan was once a close aide to Afaq Ahmed before he rejoined the MQM a couple of years back, the meeting between the two parties is said to be the first official contact during the last 25 years.

First, the MQM delegation went to Pakistan House, the PSP headquarters in PECHS, where the PSP’s senior vice chairman advocate Anis Ahmed met them.

PSP chairman Mustafa Kamal and president Anis Kaimkhani chose to stay away from the meeting. The meeting took place in a cordial atmosphere and the MQM delegation informed the PSP about their aims of holding the event.

Talking to reporters, advocate Anis announced that his party would attend the MPC. He was critical of MQM founder Altaf Hussain and asked the MQM-P to announce “a complete dissociation from the traitor”.

However, Mr Khan said his party had only dissociated itself from the London-based founder. “We should refrain from contentious discussions,” he added.

He said the MPC would discuss the issue of corruption in Pakistan, particularly in Sindh.

Later, the same delegation visited the residence of the MQM-H chief in Defence Housing Authority. They invited him to the MPC and Mr Ahmed assured his participation in the event.

After the meeting, Mr Ahmed told newsmen that the change in political behaviour was a good omen for the people of Karachi.

He said he would express his views at the MPC on the issues of Karachi and the problems being faced by the Mohajirs.

An MQM delegation led by deputy convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui also met senior PPP leader Nisar Khuhro and invited his party to their MPC. Mr Khuhro said he would consult his party first before confirming his participation.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2017