Daily The News: MQM moving closer to Qadri, away from PPP

MQM moving closer to Qadri, away from PPP

ISLAMABAD: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Dr Tahirul Qadri’s Tehrik-e-Minhajul Quran are engaged in talks for a future alliance.

These talks, sources say, are progressing successfully. If the talks remained successful, the MQM will part company with the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) early next month and join Qadri’s march on January 10. It is unlikely that Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) will join the march.

The MQM’s decision however, will have far reaching impact on the political scenario of Sindh, especially Karachi.

Well-placed political sources told The News that the MQM is weighing options and it is in close consultations with the Awami Tehrik of Maulana Qadri while the interaction between the MQM and PPP as partners of the ruling alliance has already turned feeble. The inconsequential presence of the MQM leadership in the public meeting at Naudero on the fifth death anniversary of late Benazir Bhutto on Thursday has been noted by the quarters concerned.

The MQM would like to demonstrate a similar show of people’s power in Karachi or Hyderabad to express solidarity with Dr Qadri before the commencement of the march. If the MQM abandons the PPP-led coalition, it would help the PPP withdraw its support for the local bodies law in its home province Sindh, for which is has been bitterly criticised. The PPP would thus try to regain the lost ground. It would also try to win back Pir Pagara, who has emerged as a threat to the PPP in Sindh.

The Awami National Party (ANP) is not comfortable with the MQM either. The departure of the MQM would pave the way for the ANP to side with the PPP wholeheartedly in Sindh and Karachi.

If the PPP regains the lost ground in Sindh, it will reduce the chances of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) to have a foothold in Sindh. Some months back, the Sindh nationalist leaders had indicated readiness to forge an electoral alliance with Nawaz Sharif but the new political alignments could change the whole picture not only in Sindh but also at the national level, the sources said.

Source : http://images.thenews.com.pk/29-12-2012/ethenews/t-19813.htm

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