MQM keeps all options open

KARACHI – Among the mainstream parties operating in Sindh, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) is the smartest and most shrewd operator – and for this reason, comes across as slippery. The MQM’s official posturing, till now, has been to distance itself from the politicking of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), but Monday’s Sindh Assembly session proved that there is more than meets the eye.
More hand a dozen MPAs from the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) slammed the crafty Sharif brothers for their provincial approach to national politics. “They are two-faced liars,” was one suggestion. “They are ingrates,” another one said. “Bhutto chose to die during the darkness of the night. They chose to flee the country.”
“They ran off with their families and personal servants. They love their comfort,” said another. “They tricked those who gave them asylum, and returned – only to hide in a bathroom and being sent back,” he said. “They embezzled the money collected from the Qarz Utaro Mulk Sunwaro scheme.” “They want to break Pakistan.”
“They have created a state within a state – Raiwind. They are CTBT – Chotee Tind, Baree Tind.” It was a day of absolutes for the PPP – understandable too, since their chief, President Asif Ali Zardari, is in town and the party is ready for a fight. But the MQM – hindered by the absence of their eloquent deputy parliamentary leader Faisal Subzwari, Information Technology Minister Raza Haroon, and Health Minister Sagheer Ahmed – kept mum.
Not a single member uttered a word in support of President Zardari, the floor crossing being anticipated in Punjab, the dichotomy of the Sharifs’ 10-point agenda, or even – as Taj Haider puts it – a new “IJI-like” formation. While emotions ran high from the PPP side, the MQM was alert enough to advise their senior coalition partners that any Sindh Assembly resolution is likely to create a Sindh-versus-Punjab controversy and work in favour of the PML-N in Punjab.
The best tactic, as of now, would be to ensure that the Sharifs come off as villains, as impetuous and crude, as selfish and indifferent in this tale of the un-reconciled. Sindh’s love for Zardari would ultimately hinder his quest to defeat the Sharifs, was the MQM’s argument. On the face of it, the knight had moved to trap the queen. Beneath the surface, though, the MQM’s silence was a position in itself – a position that President Zardari will not entirely be comfortable with.
This is the same MQM, let us keep in mind, which gave full support to a Sindh Assembly resolution reposing trust in President Zardari as both the head of state and the co-chairperson of the PPP. What then has changed in just a month? The MQM now has tangible options, if need be, and all of them need to be kept open lest the situation changes dramatically. With the right-wing forces – the PML-N, Tehreek-e-Insaaf (TI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) – gaining ground on the PPP in Punjab, albeit with support from the men in khakis, the PPP is desperately trying to gather the seemingly secular forces against the right-wing juggernaut.
President Zardari is in town, but he still has much on his plate: the Raymond Davis fiasco is throwing the Dr Aafia Siddiqui back into the limelight; international prices of oil are likely to having an adverse impact on the inflationary pressures in a country such as ours; and then there is the small matter of the elections – mid-term or otherwise.
The MQM’s calculation, however, is that the PPP might lose the moral leadership of this cluster of secular parties – a cluster already fractured by Muttahida’s frosty relationship with the ANP. The issue of contractual employees of the Education Department has demonstrated the support the MQM is offering to the PPP, but power politics is always fickle.
There is opportunity for the MQM to lead the cluster of secular parties, if need be. There is also a chance for the MQM to divorce the PPP altogether, and go solo – after all, national polity is not purely divided along ideological lines, and in power politics, nothing is permanent. Dr Aafia Siddiqui is as much an MQM issue as it is a JI issue.
It is for this reason that the MQM is not committing to one particular decision, but is keeping all options open. It really is a wily operator, is the MQM. Will it end up being provincial? Hope not. The king is not dead, long live the king!