Amid barbs: MQM quits PPP-led Sindh coalition govt

Party says it won’t backtrack on demand for separate province

KARACHI:

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on Sunday quit the Pakistan Peoples Party-led coalition government in Sindh in protest at PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s ‘unsavoury remarks’ about its chief Altaf Hussain at Saturday’s rally.

“We have decided that we won’t be part of the Sindh government. We won’t compromise when it comes to our leader Altaf Hussain,” Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, the deputy convener of the MQM Rabita Committee, told reporters.

The MQM had become a junior partner in the PPP-led coalition government in Sindh just six months ago.

The announcement came after Bilawal Bhutto — at the PPP rally in Karachi — criticised MQM chief Altaf Hussain and said his party was responsible for ruining Karachi.



Relations between the PPP and the MQM have soured over the last couple of weeks, especially after Bilawal Bhutto’s address on Eidul Azha in which he had asked Altaf Hussain to control his ‘Na Maalom Afrad’ [unknown men] and threatened to make his life ‘difficult’.

Not all barbs against the MQM have been directed by Bilawal. On Friday, senior PPP leader Khursheed Shah said that ‘Mohajir’ was a derogatory word and should not be used by the people  who have migrated to Sindh  as an epithet for themselves.

“After Bilawal’s speech yesterday, there is no reason left for us to stay with them,” Siddiqui said. “If we support the PPP then it means that we are against democracy. We have offered sacrifices, and played our part. But instead of love we only got hatred and were treated unjustly,” the deputy convener said.

After leaving the Sindh government, the party will have to sit on the opposition benches in the Sindh Assembly and its two provincial ministers — Rauf Siddiqui and Sagheer Ahmed — will have to relinquish the portfolios of industries and commerce and health, respectively.

Both Adil Siddiqui and Faisal Sabzwari, who were inducted as advisers in the Sindh cabinet, as well as Abdul Haseeb, who works as special assistant to the chief minister, will also be resigning.

Lashing out at Bilawal

Slamming Bilawal Bhutto, the MQM leader asked as to on what basis Bilawal was selected as the PPP’s chairman. “Bilawal can be an heir to Bambino Cinema but he can’t inherit the top position at the PPP,” said Siddiqui, adding that Bilawal’s politics was a business and money-minting venture.

As the crowd chanted ‘Go Zardari, Go’ and ‘Go Bilawal, Go’ slogans, the MQM leader called the PPP chief ‘Bilawal Zardari’ and said a Bhutto’s heir can be only a Bhutto and not a Zardari.

New provinces

Siddiqui said the PPP leader’s statement regarding the word ‘Mohajir’ could turn into a movement for a new province. “The MQM will not backtrack from its demand more provinces in the country for better administration and more resources,” he said.

He said that because of the PPP’s injustices against the MQM, Sindh was already divided into two parts. “Sindh 1 speaks of feudalism and is spreading hatred and Sindh 2, which is democratic and is spreading love,” he added.

He said the people of urban areas were not treated equally and not given their due share. “Walk into Sindh Secretariat and you’ll feel that it is not situated in Karachi,” he said, adding that Urdu speaking people could hardly be found there.

Siddiqui pointed out that years ago his party had renamed itself from Mohajir Qaumi Movement to Muttahida Qaumi Movement as it wanted to unite everyone. “The PPP had given us enough reasons to be against them for 100 years but we listened to our leader and did not react,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2014.