MQM wants PTI to back Farogh Nasim for Senate chair

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has asked the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to back Dr Farogh Nasim for the office of the Senate chairman if the Imran Khan-led party wishes to provide representation to people from the “neglected” parts of the country.

MNA Kanwar Naveed Jameel proposed this on Saturday during a meeting with PTI leaders, including Dr Arif Alvi, Haleem Adil Shaikh and Imran Ismail, who called on MQM leaders at their Bahadurabad headquarters seeking support for electing their candidates as chairman and deputy chairman of the parliament’s upper house.

Alvi said his party wished to fill the offices with people from Balochistan and Fata to address their concerns of lack of representation in the parliament.

Referring to the supposed horse-trading in the Senate polls, the PTI leader said democracy had eventually lost with the involvement of money for securing votes. He added that the way the elections were conducted, it is likely that people like him would refrain from getting involved in it again.

He told the meeting that the PTI’s concept and the MQM’s manifesto were nearly the same, and that was why he wanted the two parties to work with each other.

However, responding to a question about his allegation that the MQM was involved in terrorism, the PTI leader said he still stood by his words.

He also said his party cannot collaborate with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) or the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to fill the top slots in the upper house of the parliament. Alvi said the MQM has five senators, which was why the PTI held a meeting with them.

MNA Jameel said: “The PTI’s proposal to give representation to people from neglected parts of the country is commendable, and Karachi too is one of them.” Nasim can be our candidate for the chairman slot, he added.

Talking about meetings with the PPP and the PML-N, he said that neither they nor the PTI are clear on who their candidates for Senate chairman and deputy chairman are. He added that the MQM has yet to decide who to vote for, as the decision will be made after considering all the proposals.

A day earlier the PML-N had formally sought the MQM’s vote for its candidates for the Senate chairman and deputy chairman while reassuring the MQM of its support in return, which includes the federal government’s Rs25 billion development package for Karachi.

Speaking to the media after meeting MQM leaders, Governor Mohammad Zubair, who led the PML-N delegation, announced that the planning for the multi-billion-rupee development package for the city has been completed and would be launched in “a few weeks”.

Federal Minister for Climate Change Mushahidullah Khan, Senator-elect Asad Junejo and party leader Saleem Zia were also part of the PML-N delegation that met the MQM. Zubair said they intended to build a long working relationship between the two parties.

The MQM’s Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said they were ready to cooperate with the PML-N just like they had done so previously. He added that their final decision would, however, be in favour of the democratic process in the country and their voters in the urban centres of Sindh who, he said, were upset with the policies of the federal and provincial governments.

Later, the PML-N delegation also met Dr Farooq Sattar at his house. Meanwhile, an MQM delegation led by Amir Khan called on Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) chief Pir Sibghatullah Shah Rashidi at his residence, the Kingri House.