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There was no honeymoon period. The marriage of inconvenience between the MQM-P and the PSP is off to the rockiest of starts, with duelling news conferences, U-turns galore and biting uncertainty.
Another round of political engineering appears to have been unleashed by shadowy forces and it could have dangerously unpredictable consequences for a volatile city like Karachi. Indeed, the whole of Sindh may have to brace itself for a new round of political instability if rumours of the purpose behind the MQM-P and PSP ‘merger’ are to be believed.
Difficult as it may be to discern a coherent plan in what is clearly a reluctant merger, there is speculation that ahead of next year’s general election an array of political forces in Sindh may be clubbed together to present a united challenge to the otherwise seemingly unbeatable PPP at the provincial level.
Engineering a challenge to the PPP’s political dominance in Sindh is something that has been attempted before and it appears that old habits die hard, with no lessons learnt. Unhappily, the squabbling MQM-P and PSP appear heedless to the possibility that they are increasing the space for anti-democratic forces in the province.
If a merger was desirable or an electoral inevitability, a better path would have been for internal restructuring in the two parties before a publicly declared set of meetings to discuss a common platform.
Both the MQM-P and PSP continue to have unacceptable militant elements within their ranks and it is imperative that they shed all such elements ahead of the next election. The propensity for violence in certain sections of both parties is well known and internal reform is necessary.
Instead, by attempting a merger in murky circumstances and then quickly falling out, the MQM-P and PSP have created further excuses for political engineering by anti-democratic forces. There is no scenario in which interference in the democratic process by anti-democratic forces can work to the long-term benefit of political parties or the people of Sindh.
While the PPP’s governance record is poor and the MQM has been wracked by internal strife in recent years, political stability has been elusive in Sindh in part because the Karachi operation morphed into a political project from a security-focused beginning.
The incorporation of militant wings in political parties was an issue that had to be addressed by the state. But the quest to return peace and stability to the city should never have been allowed to turn into a question of who has a legitimate right to govern Sindh.
Indeed, the descent of Karachi into violence in recent years could be traced to an artificially lopsided balance of power in the province under the Musharraf regime.
There is no panacea to the problems of Sindh and the powers that be ought to recognise that they are creating new problems with their misguided approach to the politics of the province.
Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2017
Comments (6) Closed
The break up of arrangements between MQM and PSP within no time means that there was really no shadowy pressure to bring them together.In my opinion it was a deliberate political move of their previous all in all leadership in London.Following his perception that PSP is an artificial creation consisting of non volunteer members an effort was made by his supporters in Karachi to first make an alliance and them merge them together in one MQM. But political message which immediately went out was that MQM has finally disbanded itself.Considering it a fatal political move the leadership in London immediately took steps to dismantle the arrangements. To me MQM(P) has been politically further degraded.
Pawns of establishment. . Be quiet
The theatre is ' owned ' by a powerful few who pick and choose the actors to play to their selfish tunes . Once again a new scene will unfold and , as usual , the beleaguered audience of this province will watch it in silence .
Political process should evolve with the unencumbered consent of the workers of the Parties if the Parties desire any alliance or merger for mutual benefits.
Who are the powers that be and where be they?
These people need to clean their hearts. Unless and until they do that, they will stay enslaved in their bloated and often unfounded whims and distorted sense of reality. Even after seventy years, if they still keep 'glorifying' and segregating themselves from the masses at large with their mohajir mantra, something is seriously wrong with their sense of reality and sincerity. They need to come out of their opaque shell and enter the bigger all inclusive fold for their own good and that of still wrongly perceived 'host' community and the State they are born citizens of.