Quitting the assemblies: MQM ready to return if major demands met

JUI-F chief expected in Karachi today; MQM official says talks already under way

KARACHI:

With Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman expected to arrive in Karachi today (Monday) to meet leaders of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), it seems the party’s lawmakers will most likely take back their resignations in the coming days.

Talking to The Express Tribune on Sunday, an MQM MNA said he and his fellow party legislators were likely to return to parliament and the Sindh Assembly once their major demands were accepted.

A member of the MQM Rabita Committee, meanwhile, said that talks with other politicians were under way and things seemed to be heading in a ‘positive direction’. Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who was earlier named point person in negotiations with the MQM, telephoned Altaf Hussain late Saturday night to discuss the issue of resignations.

Twenty-three MNAs, eight senators and 51 Sindh MPAs affiliated with the MQM quit their respective legislative houses last week, protesting what they said was the party’s ‘victimisation’ in the ongoing operation in Karachi. In a 19-point charge-sheet against the government and law-enforcement agencies that they attached with their resignations, the MQM lawmakers also accused the Rangers of attempting to impose PTI on the metropolis.

The MQM has already put forward its conditions for returning to parliament and the Sindh Assembly, key among which are the formation of a monitoring committee to oversee the Karachi operation, investigation of the extrajudicial killings of MQM workers and the release of MQM workers who are currently missing.

Daily Express on Saturday quoted some sources as saying that the government had already decided in principle to form a parliamentary committee to monitor the Karachi operation and ensure that it is conducted in a transparent manner.

“This has been a longstanding demand of the MQM. We will welcome the committee if it is formed,” an MQM official said about the development. However, he stressed that missing MQM workers must be recovered and those in custody should be released.

Some MQM parliamentarians, on the other hand, are against withdrawing their resignations even if their demands are met. “We should instead contest by-elections for the seats and then return to parliament and the Sindh Assembly,” one of them said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2015.