Public expression of differences in recent days is casting shadows on MQM-P’s alliance with PPP

Karachi: Will the political alignment between Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) survive, given the fact that differences between them have lately started spilling into the public domain? According to informed speculations, a lot will depend on the results of the local government elections in urban Sindh, scheduled in mid-January.

Bol News has explored the issue following two recent press conferences – one addressed by MQM-P’s Wasim Akhtar, and the other by PPP’s provincial minister, Sharjeel Memon – in which both hurled serious allegations against each other.

Asked to explains the “ups and downs” in relations of the two parties, MQM-P’s Mohammad Hussain Khan, who is a member of the party’s Coordination Committee, said: “there are no ups, there are only downs in the relationship.”

“When two parties arrive at an agreement, it is binding on both to implement it. Unfortunately, MQM has been facing the same pathetic attitude (of the PPP) since 1988,” he said, adding that while MQM-P could raise issues with Sindh government, solutions lie in the hands of the PPP.

Another MQM-P leader, Mahfooz Yar Khan, who is also a former member of Sindh Assembly, supported this view. Referring to the agreement which the MQM-P signed with the PPP after the ouster of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) from power at the centre in April, he said the guarantors of that agreement included the current prime minister, Shahbaz Sharif, head of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) alliance, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and some others.

“But the agreement was not implemented in letter and spirit, and therefore our objections are justified,” he said. “The reasons why we quit our alliance with the PTI were the same; it was not fulfilling the promises it had made to secure the welfare and interest of the people of Sindh, especially its urban areas.”

When asked to comment on this, the PPP Senator, Waqar Mehdi, said that if MQM-P has any issues, it should discuss them with the PPP leadership in formal meetings instead of raising them in press conferences.

“By raising issues in public, you make agreements shaky,” he said, adding that PPP was hurt when MQM-P used objectionable words about a senior PPP leader and former Senator, Masroor Ahsan, during its press conference. “Why are they targeting him? We cannot be silent if they do so in public,” he said.

Mehfooz Yar Khan disputed Waqar Mehdi’s contention about making the issue public, saying that the MQM-P had on many occasions apprised the PPP leadership about the fact that the pace of implementing their agreement was “quite slow”.

Waqar Mehdi responded to this by saying that PPP was sincere in implementing the points of the agreement as discussed. “We appointed the new Karachi Administrator that was recommended by MQM-P. We also notified appointments of administrators for other districts as had been discussed with MQM-P. But the notifications were reverted by the Election Commission of Pakistan on grounds that the schedule for local bodies election had been issued, halting all transfers and postings. We did it all with sincerity, but we can’t flout rules.”

Muhammad Hussain of MQM-P, quoted earlier, also commented on Waqar Mehdi’s views, alleging “mala-fide intentions” on part of the PPP. “We provided the names of the to-be-appointed district administrators back in April, but PPP delayed their notifications till after the ECP issued the election schedule. This cannot be called a sincere move.”

Waqar Mehdi responded to this allegation by contending that it was the ECP, not the provincial government, that was to carry out fresh delimitations of the constituencies. And that was what delayed the notifications. “If MQM-P had any objections, they should have raised them at that time,” he said.

So, given these arguments and counter-arguments, how long can the alliance remain intact? There are various views within the MQM-P.

Mehfooz Yar Khan believes that MQM-P should break the alliance. “We should quit the government in the center as well as in the province,” he said. “If we want to live by the needs and desires of our people, we have to make this sacrifice, and quit power,” he said. “January 15 (when the local bodies elections are due) will be the day to make a decision.”

But the other MQM-P leader, Mohammad Hussain, has a different take on the issue. “We have two options,” he said. “Quit federal ministries in protest but stay on the treasury benches in the larger interest of the country, given uncertainties surrounding the economic and political situation. Or quit both the government and treasury benches and join the opposition, which I believe will not be in the country’s interest as we will be adding to ongoing uncertainty.”

Commenting on a possible end of the MQM-P-PPP alliance, PPP’s Waqar Mehdi does not think its likely. He re-emphasises PPP’s sincerity, saying that if that was not the case, why would it notify the district administrators in the first place. “We are trying to sort things as agreed between us sincerely, without any mala-fide intention; we just want to do it by staying within the parameters of the law,” he said.