KARACHI: Outgoing Sindh Governor Muhammad Zubair visited the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s temporary headquarters in Bahadurabad on Monday in an attempt to dissuade the party from forging a coalition with the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf at the Centre.

The MQM-P has won only six National Assembly seats — four in Karachi and two in Hyderabad — and the PTI needs its support to get a simple majority in the lower house of parliament.

The meeting between the outgoing Sindh governor — a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz nominee who a day earlier announced that he had resigned from the office — and MQM-P convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui took place behind closed doors. Mr Zubair later said the PTI was the beneficiary of rigging and he urged the MQM not to support the Imran Khan-led party.

“We want the MQM to sit on the opposition [benches] with the PML-N,” he told reporters after the meeting.

Accompanied by senior MQM-P leaders Dr Farooq Sattar, Amir Khan and Faisal Subzwari, Mr Zubair said he discussed with the party the overall political situation of the country with special reference to the results of the July 25 elections in Karachi and other parts of Sindh.

He said both the PML-N and MQM-P had serious reservations on the election results. “MQM had been the biggest party of Karachi and [during this election] attempts were made to completely eliminate it.”

‘Whole Pakistan needs MQM-P’s six seats’

He said the PTI had emerged as the biggest beneficiary of alleged rigging in last week’s election. “We want the MQM not to sit with the PTI which is going to make its government with our stolen mandate,” he said.

Answering a question about the Rangers-led operation launched in Karachi in September 2013 by the then PML-N government, he said the operation was not against the MQM.

On the occasion, Mr Subzwari said that both parties agreed to continue their contacts in the future also.

He said his party had supported the Karachi operation but it had serious reservations about it.

He said the MQM-P had rejected the election results as it was the first election in the country’s history which was “rigged by the election commission”.

Only on Sunday, Mr Zubair had told a press conference that he had formally sent his resignation to President Mamnoon Hussain as after the general elections there was no justification for him to remain in the office of governor.

He said it was the prerogative of the federal government to appoint a governor. He said during his tenure as governor he discharged his duty with utmost dedication and honesty.

He thanked former prime minister Nawaz Sharif for giving him important responsibilities.

MQM workers’ convention

In the evening, the MQM-P organised a workers’ convention at the KMC ground in PIB Colony. A large number of party workers, including women, attended the event.

MQM-P convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui told the convention that today the party had its own mandate and it got over 750,000 votes in the July 25 election.

Without naming the PTI, he said those who had one seat in 2013 had now got 14 seats only because of a “stolen mandate”.

Without naming the Pak Sarzameen Party, he also invited all those workers who for any reason left the MQM to return to the party fold.

Speaking on the occasion, senior leader Dr Farooq Sattar said that the mandate of the MQM-P was snatched, as some invisible hands gave it to “someone else” on blank papers.

Rejecting the election results, he, however, said that it was time to move forward towards next destination. “We will get back our stolen mandate with interest in next elections,” he said.

He demanded re-election in all those constituencies from where polling agents were forced out and not given Form 45.

‘Whole Pakistan needs MQM-P’s six seats’

Khwaja Izharul Hasan said the MQM-P had only six seats in the National Assembly, but the whole Pakistan needed them badly.

Heaping scorn on the PSP, he said those who were talking about performing last rites of the MQM got “seats of private airlines and not in Karachi”.

MQM-P leader Faisal Subzwari strongly criticised the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and said that this election was rare in a sense that every party was accusing the ECP of carrying out massive rigging.

“The ECP must be held accountable for Rs21 billion [spent on the election]. The chief election commissioner should resign,” he said, adding that this election was forcibly snatched from the MQM.

He said the MQM had 24 seats in the National Assembly in 2013 but no party needed the MQM. “Today, all parties need our [six] seats for government formation.”

However, he said if any party needed the MQM then it had to talk about the needs of Karachi.

Rejecting the whole election process, the MQM-P convener announced that the party would stage a protest demonstration outside the offices of the ECP on Aug 2 (Thursday).

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2018