KARACHI: A day after the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan gave him the green light to hold talks with all breakaway factions, Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori invited the leadership of the Pak Sarzameen Party to hold formal talks with regards to a proposed merger.

Sources said that the governor, on behalf of the MQM-P, extended a formal invitation to PSP chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal and party president Anis Kaimkhani who earlier in the day called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad and returned to the metropolis in the evening.

They said that the establishment had laid the groundwork for the merger talks between rival factions, but it did not want to take credit for this.

“All things have already agreed upon and the [visits and meetings] are just a formality,” a source said, expecting a positive announcement by next week.

Kamal, Kaimkhani meet PM in Islamabad

Talking to Geo News, the governor confirmed that both PSP and Dr Sattar-led groups had agreed to merge their factions into the MQM-P and work under the leadership of Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui.

Earlier on Wednesday night, around three-dozen members of the coordination committee of the MQM-P gathered at Sindh Governor House, where Mr Tessori and MQM-P convener Dr Siddiqui apprised them of developments surrounding a merger talk with the PSP and Dr Farooq Sattar-led splinter group.

The sources said that the meeting decided to welcome all leaders and workers of other factions to the MQM-P fold and gave mandate to the governor to hold talks with them.

An MQM-P statement issued on Thursday said that the meeting at Governor House decided that the doors of the MQM-P would remain open for all those who would abide by the party constitution and discipline.

Meeting with PM

About the meeting with the PM in the federal capital, a PSP statement released here stated that Mr Kamal and Mr Kaimkhani discussed with the premier overall political situation in the country with a specific reference to Karachi.

Both sides agreed that the country could be steered out of the prevailing crises only with joint efforts for which it was important to take on board all political forces.

It said that the prime minister appreciated the performance of Mr Kamal when he was the nazim of Karachi.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2022