Karachi, Nov. 8 (TNS): In a major development, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) announced to make alliance for greater interest of Karachi.
“We have decided to form a political alliance because these testing times require us to do so,” MQM-P chief Dr Farooq Sattar said at joint press conference with PSP leader Mustafa Kamal.
“We will chalk out a strategy for the next elections under one name and symbol,” he added.
“Instead of only focusing on the problems of Karachi and the rest of Sindh, we must take measures to address the issues of the entire country.”
Sattar said they wanted to ensure that peace in Karachi was long lasting and unrest did not return to the metropolis. “Political violence should never be allowed to return to Karachi,” he said.
“MQM and PSP have decided to forge a joint political alliance, a working relationship. We plan to step into elections with a joint slogan, joint manifesto and joint electoral sign.”
Sattar said they would also invite other political parties functioning in urban and rural Sindh to join this political alliance.
“We hope that illegitimate raids against the party workers will stop now,” he said, adding, “We also hope that missing workers will be recovered” following the formation of the alliance.
“Neither of the parties will lose their identities… this is only a political alliance and an oath to work together,” Farooq Sattar concluded.
“I endorse Farooq Sattar’s views. We are ready to wage a struggle [for the province] under a joint manifesto and name,” said Kamal.
“Right from the day one we held opinion that Altaf Hussain was, is and will remain the chief of Muttahida Qaumi Movement… Therefore the alliance will not function under the name of MQM.
“We began our journey to end Altaf Hussain’s undue influence on the people of Karachi and we have not retreated on that.”
The PSP chief asserted that they did not want his politics to be based on the Mohajir card. “It’s not the leaders who are killed in violence that breaks out when hate is spread on ethnic lines,” he remarked.
“It is the Mohajirs that pay the price for such politics,” he added, highlighting the need for national unity.
The alliance will take along and on-board all communities and ethnic groups, said the PSP leader. “We don’t want the no-go areas for any specific ethnicity to exist or remain,” he added.
Kamal also praised political wisdom and open-hearted approach of Farooq Sattar. “We need to do justice with our designations as leaders… we need to become one at this historic moment,” he added.
Rejecting the interim results of fresh census, the PSP chief said: “If people cannot be counted correctly then nothing positive can be done [in the country].”
