MQM-P links ‘joining federal cabinet to new portfolio’

KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan has expressed its willingness to rejoin the federal cabinet if it is given one more federal cabinet portfolio, The News has learnt.

However, the MQM-P clarified that it has only demanded the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf to fulfill its promises made at the time of the formation of a new government in the Centre.

Giving a jolt to the PTI-led federal government on January 12 in the Centre, the MQM-P Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui announced his decision to quit the federal cabinet as the Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication. Since then, two high-powered delegations of PTI – led by federal ministers Asad Umar and Pervez Khattak, separately visited the MQM-P’s Secretariat to convince them to rejoin the federal cabinet but the deadlock between them continues and they were unable to break the ice.

However, sources from ruling PTI said that one of the critical MQM-P's demands is for a federal cabinet slot for their party Spokesman Aminul Haq, besides the oft-stated demands.

“The MQM-P has consistently been insisting that Farogh Naseem, Minister for Law and Justice, is solely working on the behalf of federal government instead of representing the MQM-P in the federal cabinet,” a PTI leader who is familiar with the negotiations between the two parties, told The News.

The MQM-P has also been arguing that the party had not given the names of Farogh Naseem and Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui for the federal cabinet and had insteadproposed Aminul Haq and Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan. But the federal government on their own appointed both of them. Now the sources said, MQM is insisting on inducting Aminul Haq in the cabinet.

The PTI leader said that the MQM-P knows that the federal government is not in a position to remove Naseem from the law ministry because he is dealing with some important cases for the government and therefore they are demanding to include its senior leader Syed Aminul Haque in the federal cabinet.

However, the MQM-P rejected that it had demanded the third ministry and said that the party had resigned from the federal government because of the non-fulfillment of the nine-point memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the formation of a new government in the Centre.

“The MQM-P resigned from the federal cabinet because of injustices with the urban Sindh, non-provision of funds, and other issues. It was not seeking any more ministerial portfolios,” said an MQM-P’s spokesperson in a statement on Thursday. “The MQM-P will only rejoin the federal cabinet after the resolution of issues of Urban Sindh,” the spokesperson said.