PPP’s Sindh politics continue to surprise with unexpected twists and turns in quick succession. The party has kept analysts guessing as to its intent vis-à-vis the Zulfiqar Mirza factor. Mirza’s initial outburst against the MQM and Altaf Hussain a few months back, and the acceptance of his subsequent resignation from ministerial office and from the provincial assembly, elicited scepticism from most quarters with regard to him being a rogue element. It was widely believed that he would soon return to the inner sanctums of the party following a quiet period after having done the needful. Only recently, that perception gained momentum when PPP’s Information Minister Sindh Sharjeel Memon was spotted emerging together with Zulfiqar Mirza from the Heathrow airport.
Mirza was a man on a mission, who had travelled to the UK to present ‘highly sensitive evidence’ against the MQM, and perhaps specifically against Altaf Hussain, to Scotland Yard in the Dr Imran Farooq murder case. Upon the MQM’s vociferous demand for an explanation, Memon was summoned back to Pakistan immediately and a decision taken to “accept his resignation”. This development, together with the Sindh Assembly’s sans debate resolution against “such people who have levelled false allegations” without naming Mirza, has all but put paid to earlier speculation.
Whether Mirza transgressed his initial mandate or was rogue to begin with is now only a matter of curiosity and a moot point, with party discipline having kicked in in the shape of Sharjeel Memon and Imdad Pitafi’s fates. It took frantic effort and activity on the part of the PPP to keep Mirza’s name out of the resolution passed by the Sindh Assembly. It was not for love of Mirza , but for his following in interior Sindh and his loyalists in the Sindh assembly who threatened not to sign any resolution naming him.
The PPP appears torn between the desire to keep the coalition intact with the MQM, and the need to keep Mirza and his interior Sindh voter base onside. Given the fact that Memon and Pitafi were not the only Mirza loyalists representing Sindhi interests, theirs may not be the last casualties at the altar of keeping at peace with the MQM, and keeping peace in Karachi.
MALIHA FATIMA SAEED
Karachi
