MQM set to make new start

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement's (MQM) nominee for the slot of Sindh provincial governor met President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad on Saturday, hoping to erase the long-standing mistrust and differences between his party and the powerful military establishment.

"The meeting was held in a very nice and cordial atmosphere," said Ishratul Ibad, the MQM's nominee for governor after his more than hour-long meeting with Musharraf. The president appreciated the MQM's efforts for the country's stability and to strengthen democracy, he said.

The MQM, which has 17 members in the National Assembly, is an important partner of Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali's fragile coalition government, which has a wafer-thin simple majority of just one vote.

The MQM also supported the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam (PML-QA) in the formation of the Sindh provincial government, led by Chief Minister Ali Mohammed Mehar.

The MQM, which had 41 seats in the Sindh Assembly, withdrew its candidate in favour of Mehar, whose PML-QA had only 15 seats in the 168-member house. Now the MQM wants a payback.

Ibad, who returned to Pakistan over the weekend after living in self-exile for 10 years, said that he gave Musharraf a message from MQM supreme leader Altaf Hussain.

The MQM officials were optimistic that Ibad's appointment as governor would be announced in a day or two. But Ibad was careful about making any comment.

"It is the prerogative of the president to appoint the governor," he said.

Sindh is a multi-ethnic province of Pakistan, where Sindhi-speaking people dominate its rural areas and the Urdu-speaking people, who migrated from India at partition in 1947 and their descendants, the urban region. It is a long-standing tradition in Sindh that the chief minister belongs to the Sindhi-speaking community, while the governor is a non-Sindhi speaking.

The MQM, which remained under fire from the establishment for several years, is for the first time hoping to get this coveted, but largely ceremonial post. The MQM had been a target of a massive military and police crackdown in the 1990s.

Successive governments have blamed the MQM for most of the political violence in the city. The MQM denies the charge and said hundreds of its workers were summarily executed during successive operations.

A powerful section of the establishment accuses the MQM of anti-state activities. But Ibad said there has been a remarkable change in the establishment's outlook towards the party.

"There has been an acceptance of the MQM," he said. In the past, the MQM joined both the coalition led by former premiers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. But they were targeted under the government of their allies. "We want to work for the development and stability of the country," said Ibad, who is a doctor by profession. "We want to serve the people irrespective of their ethnicity."

Ibad was set to meet Prime Minister Jamali last night or today amid reports in the local media that a powerful section of the establishment is unhappy with Ibad's nomination.