KARACHI: The presidential nominee of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Arif Alvi, visited the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s temporary headquarters on Tuesday and sought the support of his party’s coalition partner in the upcoming election for the country’s president.

The MQM-P has become a coalition partner of the PTI at the Centre after signing a nine-point memorandum of understanding (MoU).

The support of its seven MNAs was pivotal for the election of Imran Khan as prime minister as he got only four votes more than the required number of 172 in the National Assembly.

As President Mamnoon Hussain is going to complete his five-year term next month, it appears that the PTI has launched its presidential election campaign even before the announcement of the poll schedule.

The PTI leader visited Bahadurabad headquarters along with a delegation

Mr Alvi, a PTI MNA from Karachi’s NA-247 constituency who has been named by his party as its presidential candidate, visited the Bahadurabad headquarters along with a party delegation and held discussions with MQM-P leadership on the overall political situation with a specific reference to the problems of Sindh’s urban areas, including Karachi.

The PTI side included Firdous Shamim Naqvi, Haleem Adil Shaikh and others while the MQM team comprised Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Amir Khan, Faisal Subzwari, Aminul Haq and others.

An MQM source told Dawn that the party assured Mr Alvi during the meeting that its MNAs, senators and MPAs would vote for him in the presidential election when he asked the party for its support.

Later, MQM-P convener Dr Siddiqui, who only a day before took oath as federal minister, told reporters that the MQM-P would not disappoint the PTI.

Solution to urban Sindh’s issues top priority

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Alvi said he discussed with the MQM-P leadership formation of a task force to oversee matters relating to Karachi and the rest of Sindh.

“We have taken the MQM’s viewpoint on our 100-day programme.”

He said finding solution to numerous problems of urban Sindh was the top priority of both the parties since they got the mandate.

Mr Alvi, who is also the PTI’s Sindh chapter president, said the Sindh Local Government Act did not reflect Article 140-A of the Constitution and Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar was rightly complaining of a lack of powers and paucity of funds.

He said the PTI was also considering filing a petition for an empowered local government system but the MQM-P pointed out that their similar petition was also pending before the Supreme Court.

Disclosing that he sought MQM-P support in the presidential elections, he said that the city of Karachi had made the prime minister and after getting MQM votes Karachi would make the president of Pakistan.

Dr Siddiqui said that following the July 25 elections both the PTI and MQM-P had been exploring new avenues of cooperation.

He said the cooperation that extended to the National Assembly would continue in future also.

He said that the urban areas of Sindh should now be given more resources as the country would progress with development in Karachi.

“We have assured the PTI of our full cooperation,” he said.

When asked whether the MQM-P accepted the PTI’s success in the general elections, Dr Siddiqui said that it had been decided between the two parties that the MQM-P was free to challenge the results of the elections of any constituency.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2018