All possible positions. At the same time
Running with the hare, hunting with the hounds. It appears that the prime minister’s statement about how the MQM has actually never left wasn’t just saccharine sweet nothings mouthed in an attempt to woo back the party; the words were actually to be taken very literally. As per a report in this paper, the MQM ministers who had “resigned” some time ago are still calling the shots at their respective ministries. These include the ministers for ports and shipping and overseas Pakistanis. All transfers, promotions and postings in the ministries and their subordinate departments are done after approval from both Dr Farooq Sattar and Babur Ghauri. Rather than flip-flopping, as the MQM is wont to, the party has shown that the whole government/opposition thing is not necessarily an either/or.
This isn’t much of a surprise for MQM watchers, regardless of which side of the fence they sit on. For those charitable to the party: this is how smaller parliamentary presences play the system, especially when they can, given the fractured parliamentary profile that we saw in the centre after the 2008 elections. For those against: this was yet another example of duplicity of a party adept at playing up the victimhood narrative despite victimising many. The MQM can spout claims to a couple of anti-establishment credentials (very strongly contested, though) whenever the need arises, yet remains just about the only mainstream party (other than, perhaps, the PML-F) that openly invites military rule. What is amazing is that it does all this in the same breath. It claims to be the party of the downtrodden but claims much louder that it is the party of the middle-class. Again, same breath.
To segue back to the issue of the ministries, there should at least be a measure of transparency in government. It is an affront to representational democracy when two members of the national assembly, who have stopped sitting on the treasury benches, functionally have cabinet portfolios.
The Republic deserves candour, not smoke-and-mirrors politics.
