How interesting that a man who was responsible for Karachi-based politician Farooq Sattar’s woes that ultimately led to his exit from Pakistan Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) a couple of years ago has now emerged as his messiah, so to speak. This man is no one else but incumbent Sindh governor Kamran Tessori.

Not only has Tessori merged Farooq Sattar’s faction with MQM-P, he has also successfully persuaded former Karachi mayor and chairman of Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) Mustafa Kamal to rejoin Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui-led MQM-P through a merger. However, the Sindh governor has yet to rope in Afaq Ahmed, the chairman of Mohajir Qaumi Movement, to follow in the footsteps of ‘Farooq Sattar bhai’ and ‘Mustafa Kamal bhai’.

No doubt, this move is aimed at regaining the political space that the party had squandered away following party founder Altaf Husain’s political banishment in August 2016 and the subsequent rise of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) that had found its best expression in its massive victory in Karachi in the 2018 general elections.

However, the real threat to the ‘rebranded’ MQM’s plan to reclaim whatever it had lost in the last six years or so stems from no rival political party or parties; it’s their banished leader Altaf Husain who has been undermining MQM-P’s stated or non-stated objectives through his speeches that always contain a measure of bluster against them.

Mehrunnissa Syed (Karachi)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023