MQM collects resignations of its ministers, advisers

Dawn - KARACHI: A controversy between the Pakistan People’s Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement over restoration of the old status of Hyderabad district intensified on Sunday when the MQM coordination committee collected resignation letters from its ministers and advisers in the federal and Sindh governments. 

The federal PPP-led government may lose its majority in the 342-member National Assembly if 25 MNAs of the MQM withdraw their support. The PPP has 124 members and its majority depends on the support of the MQM, Awami National Party, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam and independents. 

There was no contact between the top leadership of the two parties till the evening and the PPP did not appear to be in a mood to retract its stance on reviving the pre-2005 status of Hyderabad. 

Sindh’s acting Governor Nisar Khuhro said that if the current status of Hyderabad district was maintained the five defunct districts of Karachi should also be revived. 

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had said at a convention of PPP legislators and office-bearers of Hyderabad division on Saturday that the old administrative structure of Hyderabad would be restored. The statement drew harsh criticism from MQM chief Altaf Hussain who threatened to quit the coalition. 

While Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah is reported to have said that a core committee comprising senior members of the PPP and the MQM is the appropriate forum to resolve such contentious issues, the MQM does not appear to be interested in the proposal. “To us this issue is non-negotiable,” said Dr Farooq Sattar. 

The MQM chief has urged President Asif Ali Zardari to intervene and the party is waiting a response. 

Sources in the MQM told Dawn that its ministers and advisers had submitted their resignation to the coordination committee which would send them to the authorities concerned “at an appropriate time”. 

“We will take every possible measure to resist any change in the current status of Hyderabad and Karachi. Why should we support a government which is not willing to take us along,” a member of the coordination committee said. 

The sources said that a strategy to mount pressure on the government in phases had been worked out by the committee during marathon sessions held simultaneously in Karachi and London. In the first phase, ministers and advisers belonging to the MQM would resign but its parliamentarians would continue to support the government because the party did not want to derail the democratic process, they said. However, if the government unilaterally revived the old status of Hyderabad the MQM would join the opposition in parliament, the sources said. 

“We still think that better sense will prevail and the PPP will not impose any unilateral decision,” one MQM leader said.