LAHORE: Now that Punjab is safe, the PML-N has stepped up its efforts to build a grand alliance in Sindh. They have announced an alliance with the MQM, which seems to be a move against their old partner, the PPP.
Now, the party wants to work with other groups in the state, like JUI-F, to reach more people.
This much-anticipated news came out after a meeting on Tuesday between the leaders of MQM and PML-N at the party’s central office in Lahore.
The three-person MQM group was made up of Khalid Maqbool Saddique, who is the leader of the party, Dr. Farooq Sattar, and Mustafa Kamal.
On the PML-N side, Nawaz Sharif, the head of the party, Shehbaz Sharif, the president of the party, Maryam Nawaz, the general secretary, Ahsan Iqbal, and the president of Punjab, Rana Sanaullah were all well-known attendees.
Senior PML-N leaders Ayaz Sadiq and Saad Raffique were there, as well as Pervaiz Rashid, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Bashir Memon, who was just named president of Sindh, and Mian Nouman.
The PML-N said that both parties had agreed to run concurrently in the polls. But MQM said that this agreement was just a way to change seats, since they saw themselves as PML-N’s main ally in Sindh.
Both sides also agreed to create a six-person group whose job it will be to come up with a joint action plan in ten days.
At a news conference after the meeting, PML-N also announced that Bashir Memon, a retired bureaucrat, would be the new president of the Sindh chapter.
The PPP, on the other hand, saw the PML-N’s attempt to form an alliance against them as proof of how popular it was growing. Party leaders said that the Nawaz-led party’s outreach to different political groups in Sindh showed that it was aware of falling public support, both in Sindh and elsewhere.
The PPP also said that both parties were king parties because they were “followers of the same spiritual leader.”
Getting into the fight together
Following the meeting, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Farooq Sattar, and Mustafa Kamal held a joint press conference where they said that both parties had agreed to jointly participate in the elections, as agreed upon during their time in the PDM. They would be entering the election arena together.
He said that the meeting with the MQM team agreed that big groups need to work together to get Pakistan out of its economic problems and solve its tough national problems.
He said that problems with the business, society, the law, and the constitution would have to be solved by everyone working together.
Khawaja Saad Rafique said that the MQM, PML-N, and JUI-F (with whom they said they had not yet made an agreement) were all planning to work with other political parties in Sindh as part of their alliance.
PML-N said they would reach out to PML-F, and the MQM group said they would also reach out to GDA. He also made it clear that this choice would be made by all three groups working together.
When asked about their ties to the PPP, he said that they have a long past with the party. That is why they don’t respond to their verbal attacks, which he called “fireworks.”
He also said that the polls would take place in a friendly setting.
Assemblies after the elections
Dr. Farooq Sattar said that they talked about ways to fix the present social and economic problems during the meeting. He also said that polls were not the only thing that people were talking about at the meeting.
He stressed that they need to think about and decide now how the assemblies will work after the polls and how the whole country will deal with the problems it faces.
He stressed that no one party could solve all of the country’s problems, so they had to work together to come up with a plan.
Dr. Sattar announced that a six-person group has been set up to write a charter that can be used to reach an agreement with all other parties on a joint strategy for the upcoming elections.
Later, it was said that the committee’s job was to deal with problems that were unique to Sindh.
“Not looking for ministries”
Mustafa Kamal, the head of the MQM, made it clear that their alliance wasn’t about getting ministries or making a deal to share power. It was created to only look out for the best interests of the state in the first place.
The issues Pakistan is having are so deeply rooted, he said, that if things aren’t fixed, there might not be another chance for any power-sharing arrangement.
Rather than the IMF, he said, Pakistan’s financial problems should be solved in Karachi, which brings in 68% of the country’s income.
He said that MQM has moved from being like a roller coaster to being safe and steady, firmly planted on the ground. He said they were determined to get back to where they were in 2013 when they had the most seats in Sindh’s parliament.
He also said that Nawaz Sharif was the most experienced politician in Pakistan because he had held the highest public post for a long time.
At the same time, the newly elected president of PML-N Sindh said that the party would work with other groups in Sindh that share its values to form a coalition.
Later, a joint statement from the meeting said that in ten days, the six-person group would present a charter for solving problems that people in Sindh, especially in cities, are facing.
“No decision to contest together”
But in an interview with The Express Tribune, Dr. Farooq Sattar said there was no deal to run for office together. He said that the real goal of this meeting was to build a national unity that would help the country get through its current problems.
He said they would write a charter with a certain number of ideas to make sure it is useful and can be enforced. He rejected that it looked like an electoral alliance and made it clear that the main goal was to move seats. He went on to say that MQM-P’s visit to PML-N was meant to get Karachi the attention it deserves.
He made it clear that the MQM-P was ready to work with the PML-N, even if it meant going against the government.
In terms of reaching out to the PPP, he said that they would be PML-N’s key ally in Sindh and that they would be involved in making decisions about Sindh before they were made. He said that the PPP should be involved in talks about national issues, but he also said that the party’s main goal was to rule, not help the people.
Qamar Zaman Kaira, the leader of the PPP, said that all political groups should be able to form partnerships. But he said that the fact that these groups came together to fight the PPP showed that they were afraid of the party’s growing support.
The PPP won all of Punjab’s by-elections, both in rural and urban areas. They were not afraid of any alliances because of this.
Getting everyone to work together against the PPP, he said, would also support the idea that “someone else” was behind it all.
