KARACHI: President Asif Ali Zardari's emissary, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, assured Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain in London on Sunday that 'all legitimate grievances' of his party would be addressed at the earliest.

According to sources, Mr Malik, who had gone to London on the directive of President Zardari, was due to return home to attend a meeting called by the president to resolve differences between the MQM and the PPP. However, the minister had to extend his visit to meet the MQM leadership and as a result the PPP-MQM meeting that was supposed to be held on Sunday was postponed.

The sources said that initially the MQM leadership showed no interest in meeting Mr Malik and stuck to its stance that “it cannot continue working with the PPP”, but fresh political developments, including a meeting of the top leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q with President Zardari, forced it to review its decision.

According to an MQM leader, the Muttahida chief informed the president's emissary of all reservations of his party's coordination committee and workers with regard to the government's attitude. “Altaf bhai told Mr Malik that he has always played the role of an excellent interlocutor and expressed the hope he would take all-out measures to remove the reservations of the MQM,” he said.

Maintaining that only the coordination committee could decide to end MQM's boycott of the Sindh Assembly, the leader said Sunday's meeting would definitely help bridge the gap between the two parties, whose leaders are due to meet again in Karachi on Monday. According to a statement issued by the MQM, Mr Malik's meeting with Mr Hussain lasted three hours.

According to the sources, the meeting of an MQM delegation and Sindh Governor Ishratul Ibad Khan with Mr Zardari is likely to take place on Monday afternoon.

The sources, however, said that a factor behind both sides having delayed Sunday's meeting in Karachi was that they were waiting to see how Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan articulated PML-N's stance on the recent political developments over the NAB chief's appointment and President Zardari's meeting with PML-Q's leaders amid reports that he had asked the party to joint the government.

“Everyone wants to have his pound of flesh,” a well-placed source said.

Meanwhile, President Zardari held a meeting with PPP's central executive committee members from Sindh.

The meeting discussed in detail the relations between the PPP and MQM which became sour after Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza declared the People's Amn Committee a sister organisation of his party and the Muttahida boycotted the provincial assembly's proceedings. The MQM alleged that the peace committee's members are involved in extortion, kidnappings for ransom and robberies in Karachi.

The sources said the meeting also set up a committee comprising Pir Mazharul Haq, Manzoor Wassan and Islamuddin Sheikh to deal with matters relating to population census.