ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the Majlis-i-Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) have formed a joint coordination committee to explore prospects for collaboration aimed at realising common goals and objectives.

The six-member coordination committee has been established with the consent of PTI chief and Prime Minister Imran Khan and MWM chief Allama Nasir Abbas.

The committee will consist of three members each from the two parties.

The PTI members will be Naeemul Haq, adviser to the PM on political affairs, Ijaz Chaudhary, central deputy secretary general, and Syed Ali Zaidi, federal minister for maritime affairs.

Syed Nasir Abbas Sheerazi, Syed Asad Abbas Naqvi and Syed Mohsin Shehryar will represent the MWM.

The MWM and PTI developed working relations during the 2014 sit-in against the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The MWM had raised its voice against the Model Town operation in June of the same year by the Punjab government in which 14 workers of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), led by Allama Tahir ul Qadri, lost their lives.

The MWM had joined the sit-in in support of PAT, but it did not take long for the party to make an impression on Tehreek-i-Insaf and its leader, Imran Khan, thanks to its disciplined workers who stood their ground in the face of clashes with police and harsh weather.

The two parties had an electoral understanding for last year’s general election, enabling an MWM candidate to make it to the Punjab Assembly.

Talking to Dawn, a member of the coordination committee said the body would try to find elements common to the two parties’ election manifestoes and work out a plan for their implementation.

Among the key issues highlighted by the MWM and already taken up by the PTI-led government were resolution of problems faced by pilgrims at Taftan border with Iran and measures for their security on the Quetta–Taftan road.

Published in Dawn, January 12th, 2019