MQM moves

With the skills of an established healer, the president seems to have succeeded in soothing ruffled feathers.

With the skills of an established healer, President Asif Ali Zardari seems to have succeeded in soothing ruffled feathers and, for now at least, keeping the MQM on board. Following talks with a delegation led by top party leaders, the president has won a little more time to take action against Sindh home minister Dr Zulfikar Mirza, whose comments a few days ago on extortion mafias in Karachi created a potential coalition crisis. The kind of action sought by the MQM has not been elaborated on, with the MQM suggesting it had left it to the president to take a decision on this. Encouragingly for the federal government, which had seemed somewhat panic-stricken by the prospect of an MQM pull-out from government, the party has expressed trust in the president. The fact that the party is continuing contacts with other political groups, including arch-rivals such as the Jamaat-e-Islami, should be enough to keep the federal government on its toes. This is all the more so given that another former ally, the JUI-F, has shown no inclination to move back to treasury benches and is reported to be discussing a possible change of the chief minister in Balochistan with other opposition parties.

The president will also need to decide what kind of action to initiate against Dr Mirza. His explanation to the MQM about his remarks being entirely personal in nature also suggests measures may be required to enforce more discipline within the party. A situation where opinions not endorsed by the party are expressed by various stakeholders on highly sensitive matters will obviously lead to chaos. The MQM threat to pull out of government has already created a great deal of instability. More needs to be avoided at all costs. We need desperately to create an environment conducive to political and economic equilibrium.

This having been said, the president must be congratulated on handling a difficult situation successfully. Any immediate threat to the coalition government has been warded off and the lessons to be learnt are quite obvious. There is a need to handle matters which have an impact on relations with other parties with more dexterity and finesse, so that the kind of unnecessary crisis we saw over the last few days can be avoided altogether.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22^nd, 2010.