PPP, MQM-P tussle

The PPP continues to trade barbs with the MQM-P in Sindh instead of letting its performance speak for itself. The most recent spat is rooted in MQM-P Chairman Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui’s criticism of the rural quota system for government jobs in the province. Siddiqui also accused PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of having introduced the quotas as a means to reward his own supporters and “igniting the politics of ethnicity and hatred”. The comments came soon after the Sindh High Court scrapped recruitment rules introduced by the PPP last year.

The PPP is trying to lean on the PMLN-led federal government to sack Sindh governor Kamran Tessori, who got the role in return for the MQM-P joining the treasury benches in Islamabad. It is worth noting that while the PPP is not formally part of the government, its agreement is essential to keeping it afloat. If the PPP withdraws support and joins hands with the opposition, the government would collapse. However, this is highly unlikely, considering the handouts the PPP has gotten in return for its support — the Presidency and two Governorships. Meanwhile, the PPP-led coalition government in Balochistan is similarly dependent on the PML-N. If the PML-N moved from the treasury benches to the opposition, the government would fall.

This means the PPP’s threats are almost certainly empty efforts to change the news cycle and deflect from MQM-P’s legitimate gripes about how little 16 years of uninterrupted PPP rule in Sindh have done for Karachi. Instead of disproving the MQM-P’s accusations, the PPP has been calling out its performance when it ran Sindh — even though the MQM-P’s last stint on the treasury benches in Sindh ended in 2008. This does not absolve any of the MQM-P’s alleged failings, but it actually underscores the fact that the sheer length of the PPP’s term means that if it wants to own Karachi’s successes, it must own all of its problems.

If both parties sincerely want to improve Karachi and the rest of Sindh, they must start working together instead of needlessly butting heads.