MQM-P rejoins federal cabinet

KARACHI: After showing satisfaction over the federal government’s efforts to fulfill some of its key demands, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan on Sunday announced to rejoin the federal cabinet, where the party’s two senior leaders Syed Aminul Haque and Faisal Sabzwari will be given portfolios. The MQM-P insisted that it rejoined the federal cabinet to support the government’s efforts to combat the spread of coronavirus in the country.

On Sunday, Governor Sindh Imran Ismail met the MQM-P leaders, at theparty’s temporary secretariat in Bahadurabad where they decided to rejoin the federal cabinet. The PTI leaders, including the opposition leader Firdous Shamin Naqvi, Khuram Sherzaman and Haleem Adil Shaikh, accompanied Ismail. The MQM-P leader also met Federal Minister Asad Umar, who has been tasked by Prime Minister Imran Khan to convince the MQM-P back to the federal cabinet.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led federal government had also agreed on the MQM-P’s key demand to give it another ministry because the latter believes Farogh Naseem, Minister for Law and Justice, has been solely working on the behalf of the federal government and helping them as a competent lawyer instead of working as a representative of the MQM-P in the federal cabinet.

However, after the acceptance of the demand, the party has decided to bring in new faces in the federal cabinet. A MQM-P leader told The News that the party’s convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqi, who has resigned from the federal cabinet as federal minister for information technology in January, will solely focus on the party’s affairs. Haque, an MNA from Orangi Town, and Sabzwari, a former MPA, will represent the party in the federal cabinet. The allocation of ministries to the MQM-P has not been disclosed yet.

Later, the MQM-P convener Siddiqui told the media at a press conference that both political parties have to make decisions on many issues but the party is satisfied with the major progress seen in the fulfillment of the demands raised by it. “We are rejoining the federal government at a critical time when the government along with its citizens have been fighting against the spread of coronavirus,” he said. “Prime Minister Imran Khan wants that every political party should become his arm in the fight against the pandemic.” He also said that the partnership between the MQM-P and the PTI will be remembered for a memorable time for Sindh province’s urban areas. Governor Ismail said that the federal government has allocated Rs7 billion development budget and Rs1 billion will be handed over to Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar for the metropolis. He said that a development budget of Rs 1 billion for mayor Hyderabad was in the pipeline.