Helping hand: We cannot leave MQM in the lurch, says Zardari

PPP co-chairman announces alliance with MQM in Sindh govt

KARACHI:

While political circles are abuzz with the talk of the Nine-Zero raid, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has decided to make a coalition partnership with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in the Sindh government.

“We cannot leave the MQM alone in the current situation. They have supported us in difficult times, especially in the Senate elections. How can we forget it?” he said while addressing his party’s legislators in the Sindh Assembly at a luncheon meeting on Tuesday.

In the same breath Zardari said, “This does not suit our culture and tradition. They [MQM] are in trouble. We have decided to make an alliance with them.”

The MQM had quit the coalition government in Sindh in October 2014 in response to the statements made against its leader Altaf Hussain by the PPP leadership.

“We have made this decision [to form coalition with the MQM]. What do you say?” Zardari asked nearly 90 MPAs who were in attendance at the Bilawal House ceremony.

Sources in the PPP said all the MPAs, including Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and his cabinet members, didn’t reply for a minute. Then Nadir Magsi said, “Though many PPP leaders have reservations over this partnership, I personally believe a decision [of forming a coalition with them] should be made without any delay.”

While responding to Magsi’s remark, the PPP co-chairman said, “We have decided to make an alliance with them.”

The spokesman for Bilawal House said the former president congratulated the party MPAs from Sindh for standing by the party decisions and voting in a disciplined and dignified manner in the recent Senate elections.

Praising the lawmakers, he said there were reports of uproar and furor in other assemblies before and on the polling day, but the Senate elections in Sindh went smoothly.

The PPP co-chairman spoke in detail with the MPAs about the party strategy for the Senate elections and cooperation lent by the party allies.

Zardari directed the lawmakers to prepare themselves and the party cadres for the upcoming Local Government (LG) elections and mobilise the masses in their respective constituencies.

Local bodies, he said, were nurseries of democracy and the PPP wanted party-based LG polls throughout the country.

PPP Women Wing President Faryal Talpur, Sherry Rehman, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro were among the attendees.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 18^th, 2015.