Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan and Pak Sarzameen Party, the former political rivals, produced a surprise on Wednesday by announcing an alliance, agreeing to contest the next general elections as a single party. The new organization will have a single manifesto and electoral symbol "for the greater cause of Karachi." At a crowded joint presser at the Karachi Press Club, MQM-P chief Farooq Sattar said the joint political alliance with the PSP is meant to avoid splitting the vote bank of the residents of Karachi, to have a policy of nonviolence to ensure durable peace in the city.
At the same time, they would get rid of "unjustified political encroachment" by Waderas from urban Sindh. The MQM-P and PSP leaders said they had taken the decision after deliberations for over six months. Farooq Sattar said the alliance would restore what he called the lost dignity of Karachi, and pave ways for reopening of the MQM-P's sealed offices, the release of jailed workers and discovery of those workers who are not traceable.
Above all, they would seek due political space for the beleaguered MQM-P. PSP chairman Mustafa Kamal said: "We are ready to start the political struggle with one electoral symbol, and one party identity, but not as MQM. The MQM was formed by Altaf Hussain, and it is, and will forever be, associated with him." He made it clear that the "MQM" identify is no longer a choice for joint action with Farooq Sattar's MQM-P.
Mustafa Kamal said that the two sides would struggle for all ethnic groups living in Karachi, such as the Pashtoon, the Sindhis and the Baloch. "Muhajir politics" is against the interest of the Urdu-speaking community, he emphasized. "The party has just begun," Mustafa Kamal said, predicting that the new party will sweep the 2018 general elections in Sindh. Political observers termed their coming together as a surprising move which could produce a positive impact on Karachi's once volatile politics for more than two decades.
Farooq Sattar and Mustafa Kamal said the framework and modalities of the joint alliance would be finalized in the next meetings. Farooq Sattar called the new alliance need of the hour, with the two parties deciding to serve Karachi with mutual efforts. It would be in the greater interest of Karachi, Sindh and Pakistan as a whole, he said.
Seeking support from the workers of both the parties for a success of alliance, the MQM chief said: "We should start a joint struggle for the upcoming general elections as a single party, a unified manifesto, and one electoral symbol." The two sides would seek to prevent the repeat of what the city had witnessed in the 1990s, he said.