MQM’s somersault

Machiavellian politics abound

Another 180-degree turn by Altaf Hussain. It comes as no surprise though as he has performed the feat umpteen times before.

The MQM had so far been helping the government to resolve the ongoing standoff with the PAT. In June when Qadri refused to come out of the Emirates flight at Lahore airport causing a crisis, the matter was resolved by Ishratul Ibad who called Punjab Governor to personally approach Qadri. A month later when Punjab government refused to allow PAT chief to launch his long march from Lahore as it suspected that he might not abide by his promise not to proceed to the Red Zone, Ishratul Ibad turned up as PAT’s s guarantor. When the government tried to open talks with Qadri in Islamabad, it chose Haider Abbas Rizvi and Ijazul Haq as emissaries. The MQM parliamentarians were present in the joint session of Parliament and on Tuesday Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui volunteered ‘to sacrifice’ the party’s 25 seats if needed for the resolution of the current political crisis. Such was MQM’s keenness to help the government.

And now comes the all too familiar somersault. Suddenly Altaf Hussain has discovered that the joint session was being used to malign the army as well as those agitating in Islamabad against the government. The MQM, he said, does not want to be part of a ‘stagnant’ Parliament. And this coming from a party which has been alternately a part of the administrations run by PPP, PML-N and Musharraf and was almost begging early this year to be inducted into PML-N’s federal cabinet ‘to act as a bridge’ between the PPP and PML-Q. Altaf Hussain has asked MQM’s lawmakers to tender their resignations to the party. He would review the performance of Parliament and provincial assemblies for a week and then would ask his party’s lawmakers to tender their resignations if there was no improvement. As before the aim is to bargain. MQM will wait for a week to decide who is the bigger bidder.