Resignation crisis: MQM agrees to hold next round of talks in Islamabad

Says attack on Godil may be a conspiracy to derail the talks .

KARACHI:

Despite a targeted attack on its MNA Rashid Godil, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on Tuesday agreed to take forward the talks initiated on behalf of the parliamentary parties led by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) to convince the party to take back its lawmakers’ resignations.

The MQM had resigned from the National Assembly, the Senate and the Sindh Assembly last week, citing 19 reasons but primarily due to its ‘victimisation’ in the ongoing Rangers-led operation in the Karachi.

Addressing a joint press conference at the MQM’s headquarters, Nine Zero, the JUI-F’s Maulana Fazlur Rehman and the MQM’s Dr Farooq Sattar termed the dialogue positive, and said further talks would be held in Islamabad to address the party’’s reservations.

Sattar, who was the first to speak, thanked Fazl for coming over to Nine Zero, and said that the JUI-F chief accepted to act as a mediator to resolve the political crisis created due to the MQM’s resignations.

“MQM chief Altaf Hussain also spoke to Maulana Fazlur Rehman. But unfortunately when a positive thing was going on, our MNA was showered with bullets and was critically injured,” he said, adding that the attack might be an attempt to sabotage the talks.



Sattar said the JUI-F chief has asked them to reconsider their decision, come back to the parliament and play their part in national politics. “We are taking this forward. We can solve these issues,” he said.

Earlier, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and his team were given a warm welcome when they arrived at Nine Zero on Tuesday afternoon.

MQM leaders Farooq Sattar, Nasreen Jalil, Syed Sardar Ahmed, Waseem Akhtar and Rauf Siddiqui received the guests. Haider Abbas Rizvi, who has been away from party politics for a while, was also seen at the occasion.


Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2015.