Karachi: In a dramatic twist on Wednesday the breakaway factions of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) decided to bury the hatchet by forging an alliance in the greater interest of this mega city and ultimately end ethnic politics in the city.
The new alliance, which would be named later would work together in handling the burning challenges the city was faced with to contest the next election under one platform, election symbol and manifesto.
“We have decided to jointly work together to solve the problems of Sindh (province) and especially for Karachi,” Dr Farooq Sattar, the chief of MQM announced in a press conference.
He said both the parties had been holding parleys to jointly handle the issues. He further said the alliance would ensure non-violent politics, sustainable peace and stop all the happenings that could lead to reccurence of violence in the city.
“A political alliance is the need of the time and we will later evolve the modalities and the name of the alliance,” he said.
Sattar also said taking advantage of the division, the political hawks were trying to encroach the political space of the city but this alliance would deter such attempts.
Mustafa Kamal, the chief of Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) endorsing Sattar’s statement said the new alliance would end ethnic politics in Karachi.
“In this city hundreds of thousands Pashtun, Punjabis, Sindhis, and Baloch live and if we do politics of Mohajirs, that would again unleash the politics of hatred,” Kamal said.
He also said it was decided in principle to end the Mohajir politics and thus the party name of the MQM and his own PSP party to form a new party.
“We are setting a historic precedence for the political future of this country,” he remarked.
MQM-Pakistan, which has been striving to carry on with its identity after it left out the founding leader Altaf Hussain last year that raised questions to the future of the MQM that politically ruled this financial capital for three decades.
Earlier, the MQM had a dent in its ranks when in March 2016 Mustafa Kamal, former senator and mayor of Karachi who was the blue-eyed boy of Hussain, defected from the party to form his own Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP).
The MQM blamed the PSP of being a tool of the powerful establishment of the country that allegedly pulls the strings of the political parties behind the scene.
Many parliamentarians, leaders and workers of the MQM, who were facing a variety of criminal charges, joined the PSP that was dubbed by the MQM ‘a laundry’ that washes away all the crimes and charges.
The MQM bore a deadly blow when Hussain delivered an anti-state and anti-army speech in August 2016 and the local leadership of the party debarred Hussain from the party leadership.
Despite the tension between the MQM and PSP, Kamal never threw barbs on Sattar and always held him in high esteem that made many believe that could have led to ultimate union of the two separate factions.
The TV channels was buzzed with the speculative stories this afternoon amid the two separate meetings of the MQM and the PSP to hold parleys with their respective leadership to discuss the features of alliance or working relationships with each other.
The political landscape of Karachi, the lifeline to the economy of Pakistan, remained uncertain after the division between the party, especially ahead of the upcoming general elections, scheduled to be held in 2018.
Sattar along with the senior party leadership arrived at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) to formally announce the alliance. Kamal flanked with his own leaders and workers later joined Sattar to hold the jam-packed joint press conference amid party slogans.
Meanwhile, former president and military ruler, Pervez Musharraf in a statement welcomed the union of the two parties. He said the MQM had earned a lot of notoriety and he did not see any future for the MQM. He said the alliance would pave the way for the benefits of Mohajirs, the key constituents of the two parties.
