Coordinating voter banks: MQM, PML-Q meet, discuss election strategy

A delegation of MQM is scheduled to meet the PML-Q leadership today.

KARACHI: A delegation of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) is scheduled to meet the Pakistan Muslim League - Quaid (PML-Q) leadership today (Sunday).

The Express Tribune has learnt that the visit of the delegation is part of an understanding the parties have reached for the next general elections, to support one another in Punjab and Sindh.

The MQM delegation will be led by deputy convenor of the party Farooq Sattar and will include Senator Babar Ghauri, Raza Haroon, Wasim Aftab and Wasay Jalil.

Sources said that during a recent visit of PML-Q leaders to Nine-Zero, it was decided that the party will support the MQM in those towns of Punjab, where MQM does not have a vote bank. Similarly, the MQM will support the PML-Q in areas in Sindh where it does not have enough support.

“We have vote banks in rural Punjab and want to give a tough time to the PML -N in the general election. Therefore, we have decided to make alliances with difference groups and parties there,” a PML-Q leader told The Express Tribune.

Talking to The Express Tribune, MQM Rabita Committee member Wasim Aftab said they were not meeting under a “specific agenda.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2011.