After quitting the PPP-led coalition on June 27, 2011, MQM will sit on opposition benches in the Sindh Assembly for the first time since 1996. The assembly is meeting today (Wednesday) with a bigger opposition in size in the shape of the MQM as compared to the one comprising the PML-F, the NPP and the PML-Q. These parties have now joined the ruling coalition.
The MQM legislators last sat on opposition benches during the PPP government of Benazir Bhutto (1993-96). It joined the Nawaz Sharif government after 1997 polls, which the then PML had won with a two-thirds majority. Later, Nawaz Sharif imposed governor's rule on Sindh, dissolved the provincial assembly and appointed General Moenuddin Haider (Retd) as governor Sindh after former Sindh Governor Hakim Said's murder.
The MQM boycotted the local bodies' polls in 2001 held under General Musharraf's rule. As a result, the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and the PPP won those elections and got elected JI's Naimatullah Khan as the Nazim of Karachi. MQM remained in power in the province and at the centre during the entire rule of General Pervez Musharraf. After February 2008 elections, MQM joined the PPP-led coalition.
MQM announced its decision to quit the alliance in the Sindh province and centre in reaction what it called PPP's "act of stabbing it in the back" by postponing the AJK polls on Karachi seats for the Kashmiri diaspora. The rift between PPP and MQM widened following promulgation of three ordinances by the Acting Governor. One of the ordinances pertains to the revival of Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO) 1979.
MQM has nominated its provincial lawmaker Raza Haroon, who will be replacing PML-F's Jam Madad Ali, as its opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly. Political analysts see the change in the opposition as a significant move, saying the government would now face a tough time.