3 more MPs join PSP as MQM-P groups struggle to reconcile

KARACHI: As the negotiations between PIB and Bahadurabad groups on a possible reconciliation take time to conclude, three more legislators of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan jumped ship to Pak Sarzameen Party on Sunday, saying that they had become fed up with the situation.

Flanked by PSP Chairman Mustafa Kamal and President Anis Kaimkhani, MNA Mehboob Alam along with MPAs Kamran Farooq and Saifuddin Khalid announced their decision to join the PSP in a press conference at its headquarters, Pakistan House.

Speaking on the occasion, Alam said that those running the affairs at the MQM-P had divided everyone, while he was convinced with the Kamal’s idea of bringing people closer. Referring to the violent past of the MQM, he said they were exhausted with carrying the dead again and again.

“We should not get into war,” he said, urging the MQM-P groups to be considerate of the socio-political situation of Muhajirs that they claim to represent and join the PSP because it was on the “right path”. Kamal, the PSP cheif, said that eight lawmakers of MQM-P have joined his party within the last 10 days after the tussle between the Bahadurabad and PIB groups came to the forefront in February and escalated over the days. He said that people from all ethnic groups and communities had converged in the PSP unlike the MQM. “We want to take everyone along so that there will peace,” he said, “[But] some elements want to create unrest here in the country.” Referring to the ethnic composition of Karachi, he said that the Urdu speakers, also referred to as Muhajirs, were the biggest beneficiaries of peace here and PSP was the representative of theirs and of other groups living in Sindh’s urban centres. Criticising the MQM-P politics, Kamal said that unlike them he did not want to put hurdles in the way of the Muhajirs and pit them against other ethnicities. “Though there will be differences always but, hopefully, no bloodshed.”

Kamal further said that PSP wanted to end the grudges and enmities among provinces and claimed that he and his companions were in politics to bring people closer. Negotiations at a standstill Meanwhile, the split MQM-P groups have not yet been able to resolve their issues even though they have inflicted a considerable loss to the community whose mandate they hold by losing three seats in the Senate because of the infighting.

Since February 5 when Bahadurabad and PIB groups publicly surfaced, the MQM-P has lost nine lawmakers, eight to the PSP and one to the Pakistan Peoples Party. Another top leader, Shabbir Qaimkhani, who was one of the actors in the making of the split, has distanced himself from the party and, according some electronic media reports, is now considering offers from other parties.

Both the groups blame each other for the delay. Farooq Sattar, who spearheads the PIB group, says that Bahadurabad is not taking his formula for reconciliation seriously. On the other hand, Bahadurabad says that Sattar always deviates from his position once they reach an agreement over something. On Saturday, Sattar presented his ‘final’ formula for reconciliation: he and Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, who is the convener of the Bahadurabad group, would make a two-member central policy-making and decision-making body to reorganise the party and prevent it from weakening further. He pressed on the Bahadurabad group to accept this, otherwise there was no way out.

Meanwhile, Bahadurabad group leader Aminul Haque said that keeping in view their reservations on some points, they presented a counter proposal to Sattar that either they could make Abdul Waseem, who is an MNA and is in the PIB group, the convener of the party and negotiate for the redressal of other issues. Or, he added, they could go back to the February 5 coordination committee but without Kamran Tessori. He said that, in a previous meeting, Sattar had agreed on paper to set aside Tessori’s issue for a while but then he changed his mind and insisted that he should be taken on board.

Tessori, a businessman who was previously associated with the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, is a relatively new member in the MQM-P and is considered one of the many reasons behind the split.