Alliance drama should never have happened, says Afaq

State security institutions should not have been targeted in the recent drama of the MQM-P and the PSP, Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi chief Afaq Ahmed told a news conference at his residence on Tuesday.
On November 8, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan Convener Farooq Sattar and Pak Sarzameen Party Chairman Mustafa Kamal had announced forming an alliance on a new manifesto, party and symbol.
However, they broke off the very next day when Sattar accused Kamal and, apparently, the establishment for forcing their terms onto him. Subsequently, Kamal hurled counter-allegations at Sattar and, meanwhile, corroborated the establishment’s role in mediating the talks between them.
“It should never have happened,” Afaq said of the short-lived alliance between the MQM-P and the PSP that, seemingly, only soured their relations and begot notoriety for the establishment for its alleged role in re-engineering the political landscape of Karachi and other urban centres of Sindh in a bid to fill the vacuum created after a blanket ban on Altaf Hussain’s MQM – now referred to as the MQM-London or the MQM-Altaf.
Afaq claimed ignorance of the talks for the alliance, saying that neither was he offered anything nor would he have agreed to any possible compromise. “There shouldn’t be any political agreements with people who can’t stand their ground,” he said, adding that neither Sattar nor Kamal were patient enough.
“The sentiments of the Mohajir [Urdu-speaking] community were hurt in this foolish scene,” said the MQM-H chairman. “The Rangers director general wouldn’t have clarified his institution’s position if they [the MQM-P and the PSP] hadn’t worsened the situation.”
As the establishment’s role was widely criticised in the entire event, Rangers Sindh DG Maj Gen Muhammad Saeed, while participating in a current affairs TV show, had to deny patronising any political party.
Like the MQM-P and the MQM-L, the MQM-H also tries to champion the Mohajir cause. Arguably, it was Afaq’s idea that Mohajir-centric political parties – to be precise, the MQM offshoots that vie on the vote bank in Karachi and Sindh’s other urban centres – enter into an alliance or a coalition to save their potential votes from being divided.
Reportedly, however, he was not included in the later phases of the talks on the pretext that his party had never been able to secure a considerable mandate. Responding to a question, he said the senior leadership of other parties had been in meetings with him, but in their personal capacities.
Regarding his recent visit to Hyderabad, the MQM-H chief said his party wanted to hold a public gathering there on November 24, but the authorities refused to give them the go-ahead. “Hyderabad’s deputy commissioner told me that he was under pressure to deny us permission,” he said, holding the Pakistan Peoples Party responsible for it.
“If we won’t be allowed to hold public gatherings, then we’ll go door to door to deliver our message to the people,” he said, claiming that the PPP was biasing against the province’s urban centres.
“The PPP belongs to Sindh’s rural parts. It doesn’t represent Mohajirs at all,” he said, accusing the party of illegally distributing 1.5 million jobs in the past eight years while neglecting the urban populace. “The resources of the urban centres shouldn’t be distributed.”