ISLAMABAD: A last ditch effort by Interior Minister Senator Rehman Malik on Monday saved him a day of utter embarrassment as he contacted Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain in London and requested for the postponement of the meeting between the MQM delegation and President Asif Ali Zardari scheduled to take place yesterday, so that he can be part of the talks.
A well informed source told Pakistan Today that the interior minister contacted the MQM headquarters and requested for the Zardari-MQM meeting to be postponed. “Malik said the meeting should be postponed until his return from London so that he can also be part of the important meeting being held to facilitate dialogue between both the sides, as he is the linchpin between both coalition partners,” the source said.
False promises: It went on to state that Altaf agreed to the minister’s notion just so responsibility could be fixed on him incase the relationship between the PPP and MQM sours. The source said that the MQM chief was in no mood to trust the “false promises” made by Malik.
However, he also wanted to ensure that the PPP and its allies had no excuses to blame the MQM for a possible collapse of the coalition governments in Sindh or at the centre. The source said that Malik contacted Zardari on Sunday night and informed him about his intentions to postpone the meeting with the MQM delegation until his return from the UK.
It added that the president also wanted the interior minister to attend the crucial meeting, which could prove to be a “make or break meeting”, as the MQM chief had passed orders to the party delegation to take any decision on his behalf and on behalf of the MQM Rabita Committee.
The delegation has brought with it a long list of complaints against Sindh Hime Minister Zulfiqar Mirza, while issues including law and order, repeated failure to fulfill commitments made to the MQM in the past two and a half years, concerns of the Karachi business community and the lack of government’s commitment to track down the Layari Dacoit group were included in the list of complaints.
Rehman saves face, MQM-Zardari meeting postponed
