MQM set to play key role in Pakistan
MQM set to play key role in Pakistan
KARACHI (AFP): The Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM), an influential ethnic-based group, has bounced back after four years of isolation to play an important political role in Pakistan's Sindh province following Monday's elections.
The MQM, target of a crackdown during the rule of ousted prime minister Benazir Bhutto, secured 28 seats in the 109-member Sindh provincial assembly. Provincial elections were staged alongside the national polls.
The Pakistan Moslem League of Nawaz Sharif, the overwhelming winner of the national elections, has taken 11 seats in the provincial legislature against 33 seats by Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party. The MQM also won 12 seats in the national assembly.
By Tuesday results, official counts gave independents 12 of the 92 decided seats in the Sindh assembly, with tha balance believed won by small political parties.
"Our doors are open for negotiations on forming the provincial government in Sindh, but we will go into a coalition on our conditions," MQM leader Farooq Sattar told AFP.
"We have an important role to play in the formation of government."
The MQM represents millions of Moslem Urdu-speaking immigrants from India, a community which came to Pakistan after the partition of the sub-continent in 1947. They live mainly in Karachi and other cities in Sindh.
The MQM was a coalition partner with Sharif's party during his premiership from 1990 to 1993.
In the 1993 election the MQM boycotted polls for the federal assembly won by Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party but participated in the provincial assembly election and secured 27 seats.
"Our winning streak continued even though we were in trouble," said party activist Babar Ghauri.
Sharif had sympathized with the group when it was locked in a confrontation with the Bhutto government.
"Of course, we have to carry everybody with us, we cannot treat them like opponents," Sharif said of MQM after his party cruised to victory in Monday's national polls.
Observers said the MQM, PML and other groups were likely to join hands in Sindh in a bid to form a coalition provincial administration.
More than 2,000 people were killed in Karachi in political, ethnic and sectarian violence during the three-year rule of Pakistan People's Party.
The unrest was blamed by Bhutto on the ethnic group, which accused her of discriminating against the settler community and persecuting its leading political party.