While the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) failed on Wednesday to agree to entering a full-fledged alliance, both parties agreed to operate as a more ‘coordinated opposition’ against the government.
Building on their recent contacts in Pakistan and London, a meeting of top leaders from both sides came up with what they called a ‘principled decision to become a forceful opposition in Pakistan’s elected institutions on all national and public issues’.
A joint statement read out to media by MQM’s Haider Abbas Rizvi after the meeting, however, said their joint opposition would be within the parameters of the constitution and law. However, there were no indications whether both parties would launch a campaign for early elections.
Senator Ishaq Dar, who recently had a meeting with MQM top leader Farooq Sattar, led the four-member PML-N delegation at the negotiations that took place at an elite social club in the capital. Senator Pervaiz Rasheed, a close confidant of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, MNA Khawaja Saad Rafiq and Senator Mushahid Ullah Khan were the other members of the PML-N team.
The MQM team consisted of Raza Haroon, MNA Waseem Akhtar and Haider Abbas Rizvi.
The meeting took place on the heels of an ‘informal’ interaction between Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and MQM leader Farooq Sattar in London earlier this week.
Over the weekend, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif said he was willing to have MQM in a ‘grand political alliance’ he wanted to form to push for the ouster of a ‘corrupt and discredited’ administration.
MQM chief Altaf Hussain threatened the government with ‘protests till the government is ousted’ if violence in Karachi is not stopped immediately.
The sudden cooperation between two parties that had hitherto been bitter rivals has surprised many political analysts with some of television commentators suggesting that they ‘see’ a secret hand of the powerful security establishment behind these manoeuvres.
Though both sides appeared to be moving beyond the issues that had divided them in the past, sources told The Express Tribune they would still have to go long way before finalising the modalities of their cooperation.
“It looks as though everything that happened today was very generic… there need to be more such sessions to decide how workable their cooperation can be,” said a top PML-N leader, who was not at the meeting but was told about the discussion by one of the participants.
He said the MQM had sought some ‘guarantees’ for the coming general and local bodies’ elections and in any new setup likely to be established afterwards. The MQM is in favour of elected local governments, but the PML-N has been bitterly opposed to them.
Meanwhile, the PML-N just want to keep the cooperation limited to one-point agenda of dislodging the government, at least for now, added the source.
“They (MQM) know this is the best time for them to bargain the way suits it them the best… that is why they are demanding and asking for the maximum,” the PML-N leader said of other party’s demands but did not elaborate further.
Talking to the media after the meeting, Dar said the government would get more time if it made efforts to improve itself but did not not explain what both parties had planned otherwise.
Raza Haroon of the MQM appeared to be more careful in picking words to describe the level of cooperation. He said: “It was a first step and more cooperation can be expected.”
Both Dar and Haroon said they would try to woo Jamiat Ulamae Islam (JUI) of Maulana Fazlur Rehman into the ‘grand opposition alliance’ as well.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 7th, 2011.
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