ISLAMABAD – Speculations are rife in the federal capital that to appease the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the government is likely to pull Sindh Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza out of the province and elevate him as a federal minister.
A federal government source told Pakistan Today that while the MQM leaders publicly claimed that their party had no reservation against Mirza, who is a close confidante of President Asif Ali Zardari, it had conveyed to the government that the working relationship between the two coalition partners could not improve until Mirza was removed.
The source said the PPP leadership had not taken a clear position whether to keep Mirza in the provincial cabinet or not, it could be possible that he was appointed a federal minister as a confidence building measure to address MQM’s concerns and at the same time elevating him from provincial to the federal level.