The consensus among the press corps and political parties in Karachi is that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), a once vocal critic of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), has reached an understanding with the party.
Most press conferences called by either party feature a question or two on rumours of an alliance or an ‘understanding’. But on Wednesday afternoon, MQM Deputy Convener Anis Qaimkhani repeatedly noted that parties talking of “change” and a “revolution” – two key themes of the PTI – would not be able to accomplish it with “old faces”.
“People who have been tried and tested cannot bring about a change,” Qaimkhani said. He was speaking at a press conference at the party’s Khursheed Begum Secretariat to announce that the MQM was launching a membership registration drive on Thursday (today). Qaimkhani was joined on stage by several prominent MQM leaders, including Mustafa Kamal, Shoaib Bukhari, Nasreen Jalil and Amir Khan, the ex-Mohajir Qaumi Movement (Haqiqi) leader who was accepted back into the party after he was released from jail last May.
The MQM will set up camps to encourage people to register. According to Qaimkhani, the MQM’s popularity across Pakistan had interested people in joining the party, which is why the MQM’s Coordination Committee had decided to launch a campaign. “We would like to give a message through the media that the ‘clean people’ in the parties that have called for revolution and change but have included corrupt people in their ranks, should join the MQM to bring about real change,” he reiterated.
The membership has been opened across Pakistan, but a reporter asked whether the party would be able to enlist new members in Balochistan, where an insurgency coupled with alleged state brutality has turned it into a virtual no-go zone. “We have offices across Balochistan in all districts and zones,” Qaimkhani answered. “The MQM is the only party campaigning for the rights of the people of Balochistan and we will have camps at our offices there.”
PTI and MQM
After the violence of May 12, 2007 – when gun-battles broke out in the city as then deposed-chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry arrived to address lawyers – PTI chairperson Imran Khan was barred from entering Sindh. At the time, he alleged to the Reuters news agency that this was “MQM’s fascist tactics” and he travelled to London later that year to present evidence against the MQM to Scotland Yard.
But much has changed on Pakistan’s political scenario since then. While in Karachi for his December 25 rally, Khan avoided answering questions on the MQM, asking reporters not to instigate a fight. For his part, MQM chief Altaf Hussain congratulated Khan on the success of his rally in Lahore in October. Imran Khan said last week that the PTI would consider working with the MQM if it ended its “politics of weapons”.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 9th, 2012.
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