LAHORE, April 7: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) is inviting all parties to its April 10 public meeting in the provincial capital to make it sort of an all-party event.
An eight-member MQM delegation led by deputy convener of the coordination committee Dr Farooq Sattar called on former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi at his residence here on Thursday and invited the senior Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid leader to the April 10 meeting.
Accepting the invitation, Elahi assured the delegation of his full cooperation and that a team of important PML-Q leaders would attend the meeting.
Coordination committee member Iftikhar Randhawa told Dawn that invitations were being extended to all political parties with a positive response from the invitees.
So far telephonic contacts have been established with PPP’s Jehangir Badr and Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, PML-N’s Pervaiz Rashid and Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf’s Imran Khan and Omar Sarfraz Cheema to formally invite them to the meeting, he said.
He said besides Jamaat-e-Islami, an arch rival of the MQM in Karachi, religious parties could be invited to the public meeting, which would prove to be a turning point in Punjab politics.
The party that has so far confined itself mostly to politics of urban centres of Sindh like Karachi and Hyderabad has been trying to venture into Punjab since Musharraf regime. The efforts gained momentum since the PPP led government came into power in 2008.
In April 2010, it organised a public meeting simultaneously in Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi. Most participants in these meetings were brought from Sindh’s urban areas through trains and buses.
Randhawa said this time it would be just a Punjab affair as none of the activists would be hauled from beyond the provincial borders. “Only journalists will be brought from other provinces like we carry newsmen from Punjab to our Karachi events.”
However, sources in railway headquarters claim that at least one coach of each train has been booked from Karachi and Hyderabad for Saturday and Sunday.
Another source says that many activists from Sindh will use trains to reach Multan and from there they will take buses to reach Lahore by road.
Unlike the past, the MQM is so far satisfied at the cooperation being extended by the Punjab government in organising the event. “Except sporadic incidents of removal of our banners, we’ve no complaints so far against the administration. All are cooperating with us,” Randhawa said.
The only “organised” move to remove the banners from The Mall was made by the Parks and Horticulture Authority, he said, adding that it was just a mistake as the authority was not aware that a formal permission for the public meeting had been obtained.
“When shown the permission letter, PHA men re-hoisted our banners and flags.” -- Amjad Mahmood