The allegiance of President Pervez Musharraf's coalition ally, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, is up for grabs again - for whoever wins Monday's general election. Muttahida, which mainly represents Mohajirs, has shared power with changing governments for much of the past two decades.
It has no plans to stop now, and this time is hoping to tie up with the front-running party of Benazir Bhutto, which is tipped to come out front in the February 18 vote and is now led by her widower Asif Ali Zardari. "Any political party which claims to be a progressive, moderate and secular political party, I think I'll have no problem going along with that," Farooq Sattar, who helps lead MQM as deputy convenor, told Reuters in an interview.
"100 percent, we'll offer the coalition to Zardari. And I think Zardari has also made this offer to (MQM leader) Altaf Hussain," added Sattar, whose party formed a coalition with the previous government of the PML-Q.
With a total of 19 seats at the last election in 2002, its support could help tip the balance in an expected hung parliament for whichever party seeks to form a government. The MQM has been allied to four of past five governments.
And if the party of another opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif, which completes the three main parties at the upcoming election and with which MQM has shared power during two previous governments, wins? "A bitter pill can be swallowed. I don't rule it out," Sattar said. "There is no final word in politics."
While MQM, which aspires to be a national rather than a regional party, does not endorse Sharif's calls for Musharraf to quit, Sattar does think he should make a gradual exit.
"If they can work (with him) for two years and then President Musharraf is given an honourable exit, I think that could be the best bet for ... the future of Pakistan," Sattar said. Sattar says Altaf Hussain left Pakistan because of assassination attempts, and says he has spent years rooting out 2,500 violent elements from his party.
"We have been so conscious about this legacy of the past ... which was imposed on us," Sattar said. "We so desperately want to disconnect from, denounce whatever wrong took place in that period and disassociate ourselves from that, and to appear whiter than white." "MQM managed to ... identify such elements in its rank and file and has ousted them, Sattar added."