KARACHI – The Muttahida Qaumi Movement- Pakistan (MQM-P) despite losingKarachi after its reign of three decades to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)has not lost the charm for majority party – the Imran Khan’s PTI andopposition clique, the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz.
After Governor Sindh, who has already on Sunday tendered his resignationfollowing to what he called rigged election but not yet accepted by thePresident, completed visit of the Bahadurabad, headquarters of theMuttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) with the message from PakistanMuslim League Nawaz’s president Shehbaz Sharif, the PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf’s delegation led by Jehangir Tareen arrived in MQM’s officelater on Monday night.
The MQM-P leader between the two meetings sit and deliberated as what couldbe the best possible outcome for a party, which has lost majority but stillenjoys the city government, which the lowest but an important tier of thegovernment.
“We have heard to both the PTI and PMLN and will deliberate tomorrow(Tuesday) as what is better for the city and its people,” Faisal Subzwari,the MQM-P’s central leader and former minister told *The Frontier Post*.
The MQM-P leader, however, did not rule out the option of supporting thePakistan Tehreek-e-Insafs’ federal government in lieu of good packages forKarachi.
“The issues of Karachi have increased manifold and it needs specialpackages to develop the city in order to resolve the issues of transport,sanitation, drinking waters and garbage among several other issues,”Subzwari told this scribe, adding any decision, however, will be takentomorrow after thorough deliberations and “any decision will be taken inview the benefit of people”.
The MQM-P had been pleading for more powerful local government, howeverafter the devolution of powers from center to the province, the powers oflocal government can be increased or contained by the Sindh Government butthe center can help the city through special packages.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader and former Sindh governorMohammad Zubair met with the MQM-Pakistan at its Bahadurabad office onMonday.
Speaking to the media after the meeting, Zubair remarked that the twoparties will continue to stay in the touch in the coming few weeks, addingthat MQM-Pakistan also has reservations regarding the way elections wereconducted.
Regarding the meeting, he shared that the representatives of the twoparties discussed the conditions in Sindh especially Karachi alongside thepolitical situation which has emerged following the General Election 2018.
Moreover, MQM-Pakistan leader Faisal Sabzwari alleged that the ElectionCommission of Pakistan was involved in the rigging the elections for thefirst time. “The failure of the result transmission system shows that ECPwas unsuccessful in its task.”
The returning officers must recount votes as per the law, he claimed.
“People whose own party wouldn’t vote for them won. How is this possible,”Sabzwari asked.
With regards to Form 45, he questioned where was it filled? “Who knowswhere it was filled as the polling agents weren’t present at the time voteswere being counted.”
Form 45 was supposed to be submitted on the day of the election rather thanbeing uploaded on the website after a week, he said.
When asked about the Karachi operation, Zubair clarified that it was heldto bring peace to the city. “Karachi operation was not against MQM,” hesaid.