• Forms seven-member ad-hoc committee to run party affairs
• No decision yet on whether to support Asif Zardari in presidential election

KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) on Wednesday dissolved its top decision-making forum known as coordination committee a week after it claimed that the party had found “someone from MQM-London”, who had sneaked into its ranks and was working for its founder Altaf Hussain, when audio clips of its senior leaders were leaked turning the spotlight on the party.

It formed a seven-member ad-hoc committee with Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui as convener and Mustafa Kamal, Dr Farooq Sattar, Nasreen Jalil, Anis Qaimkhani, Kaiful Wara and Rizwan Babar as its members.

It all came up last week when audio clips of senior party leaders Mustafa Kamal and Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori got leaked on social media one after another giving strength to the impression of alleged rigging in general elections.

None of the two leaders denied the contents of the clips and Mr Kamal even claimed that the leak in fact had helped the party identify ‘a mole’ within the MQM-P, who was under observation for the past several days on suspicion of being a ‘spy’ for the MQM-London.

Although a statement issued by the MQM-P announcing the fresh decision didn’t mention any reason behind the move, it said that the party had decided to ‘restructure’ the coordination committee and called it a ‘new beginning’ within the organisation.

“An important meeting chaired by coordination committee convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui was held at the party office,” it said.“The meeting consensually decided to dissolve the coordination committee in the first phase of restructuring. In second phase, the same reforms would be carried out at all levels including province, districts, towns, and union councils.”

Support for presidential election

The statement remained silent regarding decision from the MQM-P for the upcoming presidential elections in which the Pakistan Peoples Party had sought its support for its candidate Asif Ali Zardari.

The party sources said it had further delayed the “discussion on the agenda”.

They added that the MQM-P found itself in a tricky position as on one hand the PPP did not need much support from the party as it already got the number it needed to win the presidential election for Mr Zardari and on the other, the support base of the party — mainly urban areas — did not like it to join hands with the PPP due to past experiences.

“All these things were discussed in the meeting and no decision was made in this regard,” said a party source.

“Secondly the way in which the support has been sought from the PPP is another factor which pushes the MQM-P to rethink its [PPP’s] seriousness. The MQM-P leadership and most importantly its supporters across urban Sindh do not like this [MQM-P-PPP] partnership and the PPP knows it well. Despite knowing it, the second tier of PPP leadership came to seek MQM-P leaders’ support for Zardari Sahib. This shows their seriousness. The party was expecting top leadership of PPP to make a contact with the MQM-P.”

Despite reservations, he said, the MQM-P hadn’t made any decision regarding the upcoming presidential elections and the ‘feelings’ within the party ranks was conveyed to the PPP.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2024