Karachi: After years of estrangement, breakaway factions of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) Pakistan, the leading political force in Karachi, have come closer to jointly struggle for securing the long-denied rights of Karachiites.
In the case of one such breakaway political party, Mohajir Quami Movement, (also known as MQM-Haqiqi) the estrangement is decades-long as this Karachi-based political party came into existence back in 1992 during an army-led operation against criminal elements in urban areas of Sindh. Since then there have been very few contacts between the MQM Pakistan and MQM-Haqiqi as in several instances in the past years bloodied clashes took place between the two parties as both violently asserted to maintain control over different localities in the city.
Sindh Governor, Kamran Khan Tessori, who belongs to MQM Pakistan, has been making hectic efforts to unite the factions of the party. Since he assumed the office of Governor in October last year, the Governor House has been hosting meetings with the agenda to speed up the unification process.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which secured the majority of the Karachi-based seats in National and Sindh assemblies in the 2018 general elections, believes that this unification process was aimed at frustrating its chance to again emerge victorious in the forthcoming polls in the city. Before the 2018 general elections, the MQM always emerged as the largest political force in Karachi in the past polls since 1988.
PTI Karachi leader, Khurrum Sher Zaman, recently wrote a letter to President, Dr Arif Alvi, who appointed the Governor, to immediately take cognisance of brazen political activities of Tessori in favour of MQM, which according to Zaman, is in sheer violation of the constitutional stature of the office of provincial governor that should remain politically neutral.
Owing to the efforts of Tessori, the merger of Pak Sarzameen Party, led by Syed Mustafa Kamal who remained Karachi’s former mayor and was once a leader of MQM before forming his own party in 2016, and another breakaway faction of the party led by Dr Farooq Sattar, with MQM, is on the cards.
The merger announcement is likely to happen in a few weeks. Kamal while appearing on TV news shows confirmed that merger talks have been underway while he had no personal issue with this proposal to serve the residents of Karachi in the best possible manner.
For the time being, owing to efforts by Tessori and MQM leader, Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, all these parties have accepted the invitation of the MQM to jointly stage a protest outside the offices of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in Karachi on Wednesday, January 11. The protest is being staged against what MQM calls highly controversial delimitation of constituencies to hold local government elections in Karachi.
The MQM demands that its objections to the delimitations should be resolved before the local government polls.
