The Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) has ruled out the possibility of forming a joint opposition in the Sindh Assembly with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), with party leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Jam Madad Ali arguing on Tuesday that both parties have a different emphasis in terms of rural and urban policy.
“The MQM has a focus on urban issues while the PML-F, whose members are elected from rural areas, F has different priorities on its agenda. The PML-F will continue to maintain its separate identity while sitting on the opposition benches with the MQM,” Ali said while talking to media personnel at his residence.
Ali said that if the MQM formally applies for the office of the leader of opposition, he would have no qualms in quitting the post. “As the majority party in the opposition, the opposition leader’s slot would be the MQM’s right,” he said, adding that he believed this time around, the MQM’s decision is final and that it would neither return nor reconsider its announcement of quitting the government.
Responding to a question, Ali said that his party would continue to be part of the reconciliatory policy of President Asif Ali Zardari. Any decision about a shift in the PML-F’s present policy would be taken by party chief Pir Pagaro, he argued. To another query, he said that no Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader has contacted him in the wake of the MQM’s announcement to quit the government.
Ali said that now when the MQM has quit the coalition, he hoped that the ruling PPP would not turn to reiterating the excuse of compulsions and would freely take decisions. He said that the PPP should now restore the old magistracy system as well as re-establish the old administrative limits of Karachi and Hyderabad. He also argued that the PPP should implement the formula for local governance suggested by the PML-F.
