Allies weigh options in Sindh, Punjab

President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain late on Thursday fine-tuned the coalition government’s strategy vis-à-vis the situation in urban and rural Sindh and Punjab with President Zardari asking Shujaat to play his role as a mediator and ask the MQM leadership to rejoin the federal and Sindh governments as all their major demands had been met.
A source told Pakistan Today that the meeting discussed the dialogue process with the MQM at length and also the overall political situation. “The president told Shujaat that due to the politics of accommodation and reconciliation, the government was risking its stakes in rural Sindh and the MQM leadership has to take into account the political price being paid by the PPP,” said the source, adding that the meeting had also discussed the situation in Punjab, the demand for new provinces and matters regarding portfolios for the PML-Q ministers.
The coalition leaders also discussed the reinstatement of Zafar Qureshi, the additional director general of the FIA, in line with the Supreme Court’s verdict, the source said. “Creation of a Saraiki province also came under discussion and Shujaat told his comrades that creation of a new province on lingual basis may jeopardise the entire idea and may trigger lingual and racial differences across central and Southern Punjab,” the source said.
Earlier, during another meeting with the federal ministers from rural Sindh, the president advised them to observe restraint and wait for the policy of their leadership vis-à-vis talks with the MQM which would bear fruit for the good of the country and for peace and harmony between the people of urban and rural Sindh.During the meeting, the Sindhi federal ministers of the PPP and the PML-Q spoke their heart out.
“The PPP ministers said the unwise and hasty decision making by some unelected persons from the PPP had backfired and since they were not the sons of the soil, they could not comprehend the negative effects of the summersaults taken by the Sindh government on the commissionerate system,” the source said. The source said the tone and tenor of most of the federal ministers was different from what they had adopted in their meeting with Gilani on Wednesday and during their meeting with the president, most of the ministers conveyed their ill-feeling and concerns but in a subdued manner.
“Even Law Minister Maula Bakhsh Chandio, who had adopted a hawkish tone the previous day, looked submissive and kept mum most of the time while senior party leaders spoke,” the source said. The source said the presence of Interior Minister Rehman Malik also irked the Sindhi ministers who looked upset due to the presence of a ‘Punjabi’ minister “in a meeting wherein matters of Sindh were being discussed”. “Most of the talking was done by Khurshid Shah and Naveed Qamar while the hawks kept low,” the source said, adding that the president told them that he knew what needed to be done in the interest of Sindh and the best methodology was being adopted.
During the federal cabinet meeting held on Wednesday, almost all the ministers from rural Sindh had expressed strong reservations at the way some PPP leaders had handled the issue of local government system in Sindh and asked Gilani to talk to Zardari and seek time for a meeting over the issue. However, like a smart politician, Gilani kept himself at a distance keeping in view the sensitivity of the situation and did not attend the meeting, leaving Zardari to handle Sindh-related matters.