Old habits die hard. Even in quitting government, the MQM hasnt quite quit the government. Were only quitting the cabinet, they say, not the treasury benches. Or the Sindh cabinet. And were doing this for the sake of democracy, which is, no doubt, very charitable.
Many reasons are being postulated by analysts for the decision though the MQM has yet to give a specific one. The party leaders have given many vague statements about unaddressed concerns. Like, one presumes, the one about the Sindh Home Minister. Since the PM had already asked Zulfiqar Mirza to cool it, it seems nothing less than Mirzas sacking would have done the trick for the MQM. Other analysts, however, say that the MQMs famously limited capacity for criticism notwithstanding, a mere speech by a provincial minister wouldnt have been enough to push it to take such a drastic step. At a time when the JUI(F) has left the already numbers-weak coalition, a step like this is a pressure tactic like no other; the MQM cannot get pretty much whatever it wants.
The relative cool shown by the ruling party, however, reveals its confidence in the limited space that the MQM has out of an understanding with the PPP. After all, the decision to quit the coalition was accompanied by a public tit-for-tat mudfest by the chiefs of both the MQM and the PML(N). If the PML(N) isnt interested in playing ball, there is really nothing the MQM can do but bide its time. Even the multi-party anti-PPP alliance that is being propped up these days, especially by certain corners within the press, wont hold much water if it does not include the N League. Voices of reason within the League opine, not incorrectly, that if the incumbent government doesnt complete its full term, neither will the next. If, between the two of them, the countrys biggest political parties have learnt to respect the mandate that they have received for a full term, we can afford to ignore all those pundits of gloom and doom who predict a return to the politics of the 90s, despite the antics of Messrs Taseer, Awan, Abidi, Nisar and Sanaullah.
