MQM is back in business

Party’s 51 MPAs withdraw resignations from the provincial legislature

KARACHI:

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) lawmakers submitted on Friday an application to withdraw their resignations submitted to the Sindh Assembly. The move comes hardly three months after the party's lawmakers had resigned from all the legislative assemblies in the country, citing victimisation in the ongoing Karachi Operation. 

A delegation of the party, headed by Khawaja Izharul Hassan and Syed Sardar Ahmed, met the Sindh Assembly speaker Agha Siraj Durrani and submitted the application for the withdrawal of resignations of its 51 members of the provincial assembly. The MQM is now expected to return to the opposition benches when the next session of the assembly starts, the date for which has yet to be announced. However, the secretary of the provincial assembly, GM Umar Farooq, said they are reviewing the matter and the decision would be made in the next three to four days, according to the rules.



According to him, when the MQM had quit the assembly, some of the resignations were submitted in person while others were faxed or emailed. "A scrutiny committee was formed to check if the resignations were genuine. Now that the MQM has submitted an application for withdrawal, we are reviewing the matter."

Deja vu

On August 12, earlier this year, the party had decided to quit the Senate and the Parliament. Attaching 19 points as reasons along with the resignations, the party had alleged that innocent workers were being arrested, offices and homes raided and the media ban on its chief, Altaf Hussain's speeches was unconstitutional.  It also said that the Rangers were supporting activities of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and wanted to impose it on Karachi by marginalising the MQM.



The party demanded a judicial commission to investigate the 'extrajudicial killings' of its workers, and called for a grievance redressal committee to look into its complaints and oversee the operation being led by the Rangers.



Strongly vowing not to return to the assembly, it soon took a U-turn and met the federal government's mediator Maulana Fazlur Rehman at Nine Zero. The MQM leaders then went to Islamabad and met the PML-N leaders. Following the government's announcement of the grievance committee last month, the MQM leaders, in a joint press conference with PML-N leaders, announced that it was returning to the parliament and the Senate. It has returned to the upper house of the parliament earlier this week, and rejoined the National Assembly on Friday.

Khawaja Izharul Hassan, who is leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, said that the MQM would carry on its role as a 'positive' opposition.

Plans for the future

"We will continue what we were doing: highlighting the issues being faced by the people of this province. But we also hope that once we return, our grievances are addressed at the appropriate forums, the assemblies and the Senate," he said, while speaking to the media.



Meanwhile, some of the parliamentarians who had submitted forms for the chairman and vice-chairman for the local bodies election have withdrawn their forms and would be returning to the assembly. These include MNAs Dr Farooq Sattar and Salman Mujahid Baloch. Rabita Committee leader Aminul Haque has also withdrawn his form.

Others like MNA Rehan Hashmi and Arshad Vohra will continue to fight for the local bodies election, and will likely be replaced in the National Assembly.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2015.