KARACHI – A delegation of the MQM on Saturday called on President Asif Ali Zardari at Bilawal House. The delegation included MQM parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly Sardar Ahmed and provincial ministers Raza Haroon, Adil Siddiqui and Dr Sagheer Ahmed.
Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan was also present. Haroon told reporters outside Bilawal House that it was not a formal meeting and they were invited at the ceremony of the 19th Constitutional Amendment’s signing. With exception of Ebad, this was the first direct interaction of the MQM leaders with President Zardari after the party had announced to quit the federal cabinet.
“We want to continue politics of reconciliation,” Haroon said, adding that the development of political differences was normal, but the policy of reconciliation should continue for the betterment of the country. To a question, he said the MQM Rabita Committee would decide on the party’s representatives rejoining the federal cabinet.
PPP’s two-member high-level committee of Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah had held different rounds of meetings with the MQM leadership. The last meeting in t his regard was held at the Governor’s House on Friday.
President Zardari has already said that reservations expressed by the MQM would be addressed and the policy of reconciliation and taking all stakeholders on board would continue. The two-member PPP committee had also reassured the MQM that the PPP would not bring the restoration of the commissionerate system bill in the Sindh Assembly without the consent of coalition partners, especially the MQM.
