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MQM warns of Army “reaction”

KARACHI: After five years as a staunch ally of President Pervez Musharraf, the city’s dominant political force and the second largest party in Sindh province said it would be interested to join a possible Pakistan People’s Party-led coalition government after the February 18 election.

But the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, which reckons that the PPP may need its help to form a government, said if the late Benazir Bhutto’s party and Nawaz Sharif’s Paksitan Muslim league (N) were planning to close ranks in Parliament against General (retd.) Musharraf, they should keep in mind the “reaction” of the Army.

The “advice” came as two U.S. opinion polls showed PPP emerging as the second largest party in Monday’s election, followed by the PML (N), and a rout for the PML (Qauid) whose coalition government under General Musharraf included the MQM.

PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari has been ambivalent about the party’s relations with General Musharraf, saying he would want to work with him but also appearing to draw closer to Nawaz Sharif, who has sworn to get rid of General Musharraf.

“We are ready to go with PPP if it gets a safe majority but we would like to render one advice. If a drastic step is the first item on their agenda they should also be wise enough to see how the Army will react to that. That should be kept in mind,” Farooq Sattar, an MQM leader and spokesman told The Hindu as he campaigned for his re-election through the city earlier this week.

He was referring to the possibility that the PPP and PML (N) may join forces in Parliament to try and dismantle General Musharraf’s constitutional amendments since 2002 including his actions under the November 3 emergency, or even begin moves to oust him.

As a party of the mohajirs, or migrants from India, who are mostly Urdu-speakers and settled in Karachi and a few urban pockets in Sindh, the MQM is an influential voice in Pakistan’s politics.

The party has a virtual stranglehold over Karachi, where it expects to win 18 out of 20 seats this time. Its vote-bank remains unaffected by the pro-Benazir wave in Sindh. The party expects another two seats in Hyderabad, and consequently hopes to earn five additional seats from those reserved for women.

A boycott of the elections by the Jamat-e-Islami, the other strong party in Karachi, has brought down some of the election-related tension in Pakistan’s commercial nerve centre. In previous elections, the rivalry between the two parties has often resulted in deadly violence.

Dr. Sattar said despite recent moves by Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani to distance himself from General Musharraf and withdraw from governance –earlier this week, the Army began withdrawing 300 serving officers from civilian departments saying they were needed for military duties – it was not clear what the Army’s future course would be.

He described the MQM and PPP as “natural allies” because of their “common progressive agenda” against extremism and militancy, and said had it not been for Benazir’s reluctance in 2002, the two parties would have formed the government.

But the MQM had to join hands with the PML (Q) despite its “credibility gap” because the “situation demanded that a government should be formed” to break the political deadlock.

The MQM, he said, had given the city stability and peace in the last five years after the violence of the 1990s.

But extremists, criminal gangs and those who did not want to see a democratic process had tried to destroy Karachi by taking advanatage of the “natural reaction” after Benazir’s death in order to push the city back into confusion.

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