Friday, Feb 22, 2013
Karachi: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on Friday nominated Syed Sardar Ahmad, a bureaucrat-turned politician, as the leader of the opposition in the Sindh assembly after it ended its near five-year alliance with ruling Pakistan People’s Party.
The MQM parliamentarians submitted the required papers to the secretary of the provincial assembly for procedural deliberations.
MQM has 51 members in the provincial parliament which makes it the second largest majority after the PPP.
Other members who recently opted for the opposition bench numbered 10 — thus were not qualified to be the leading opposition party.
The differences between MQM and PPP surfaced recently after the latter withdrew criminal cases against the members of Lyari gangs, who the MQM blames for murdering its workers and sympathisers.
MQM also blames the Lyari gangs of flourishing extortion culture in the city and the key factor in deteriorating law and order in the city.
Lyari, an old and congested town in Karachi, has been a stronghold of the PPP in terms of party politics. The PPP is seen to have taken this decision to regain its waning popularity at the cost of losing the MQM as its ally.
The decision to break alliance came couple of months before the proposed general elections in May.
The PPP also reversed its Sindh Peoples Local Government (SPLG) law which it passed along with the MQM a few months back.
The law sparked agitation in rural areas where ethnic Sindhis opposed the law. The ruling party annulled the law to regain its losing strength in the interior parts of Sindh.
The MQM parliamentarians in Islamabad boycotted the session of the National Assembly to protest against the cancellation of SPLG and raise objections against the move.
Syed Asif Hasnain, the MQM member of the federal assembly, said the reversal of the law was against the article 148 of the Constitution of Pakistan.
By Mohammad Ashraf Correspondent
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
