The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has extended an offer to its newest coalition partner, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), to expand the working relationship between the two parties to the grassroots level, including the formation of an alliance for the forthcoming local government election and general elections, especially in Karachi.
The offer was formally extended to the PML-Q leadership by leaders of PPP-Karachi on Thursday. PPP-Karachi President Najmi Alam, Secretary-General Saeed Ghani and Information Secretary Latif Mughal discussed these issues during their meeting with the PML-Q’s Karachi President Bostan Ali Hoti, Secretary-General Amanullah Paracha and Additional Secretary Tariq Hassan.
“We want to create a working relationship between the two parties at grassroots level,” Alam told Pakistan Today, explaining that Thursday’s meeting was a follow-up to the formalisation of the PPP-‘Q’ coalition in the Centre. The PPP was working on its reconciliatory policy and it should be expanded at local level, he added. “Both the parties can build a working relationship for the forthcoming local bodies elections as well as the general elections,” said Ghani.
He said that cooperation between both parties at the local level is also necessary for furtherance of the coalition government’s policy at grass root level. Ghani said that another meeting of the two parties will be held within a week to chalk out a strategy to expand cooperation. District-level office bearers of both parties would also be invited to the second meeting, he added.
It is pertinent to mention here that the PML-Q’s Tariq Hassan had served as the Naib Nazim of the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) during first local government elections held under devolution plan introduced in 2001by General (retd) Pervez Musharraf. PPP’s Taj Haider was a close contestant for the slot of Nazim against the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI)-backed candidate Naematullah Khan.
