Aides to the PM are unable to break the impasse over delimitation between the PPP and MQM.
At Bilawal House, a government delegation is now having discussions with the MQM-P and the PPP.
KARACHI: The discussions between the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan on Monday on the local government elections and delimitation remained fruitless because the latter’s demand was still unresolved.
The discussions, which were presided over by the former president Asif Zardari and took place at Bilawal House, also included Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and PM’s Advisor Malik Ahmed Khan.
To the PPP, the MQM-P expressed its worries about holding local government elections on January 15.
The group received a briefing on the local body elections from the legal counsel for the Sindh government.
Legal experts reportedly stated that new delimitations would take at least four months and that delimitations were not instantly practicable.
The governor of Sindh claimed that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was pressuring the divisions of Karachi and Hyderabad to hold local body elections on January 15.
The federal ministers and the MQM-P team departed Bilawal House after the discussion without speaking to the media.
The MQM leaders arrived at the Governor House following their meeting at Bilawal House. They warned Tessori that their party would have to make a difficult choice if a satisfactory solution to the issue could not be found.
According to sources, PPP Co-Chairman Zardari will be contacted by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on the meeting’s scenario. The PM was also informed of the situation by the governor of Sindh.
The sources stated that a meeting will probably take place on Wednesday. According to the sources, the MQM-P maintained its position against the constituency regarding the meeting’s inside information.
In the meeting, “bitter words were also uttered on a few instances, but Zardari calmed things down,” they continued.
The MQM-P made it plain that they would not permit anyone to harm Sindhi citizens simply because they had a majority in the assembly.
The MQM-P stated, “We joined the current coalition government because we desire a permanent solution to the problems of Sindh inhabitants.”
In the meeting, MQM asserted that the PPP’s demands were not being carried out on purpose and that the PPP had no intention of implementing their agreement.
On Sunday, the MQM-P, a supporter of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), took a strict stance regarding the delimitation dispute in Hyderabad and Karachi as well as the PPP government’s lackadaisical approach toward Sindh.
The MQM-P Rabita Committee meeting, presided over by its chairman Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, threatened to leave the Center’s ruling coalition government and launch protests if “new delimitation” of LG polling districts in Hyderabad and Karachi was not carried out before January 15.
LG elections were scheduled to take place in Hyderabad and Karachi on January 15 according to a statement from the ECP.
