‘MQM-P ready for all kinds of cooperation if PPP backs its proposed constitutional amendment’

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has not initiated the talks regarding forming government in the centre with any political party.

MQM-P Convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said this on Wednesday as he spoke to the media outside the Sindh Governor House where a meeting of the MQM-P coordination committee was held.

The meeting discussed the talk of the party leaders with Shehbaz Sharif and other leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in Lahore.

Dr Siddiqui said that if the PML-N wanted to include the Pakistan Peoples Party in the federal government, it was free to do so. “For national harmony, the PML-N should also talk to the PPP and other parties. We have no enmity with the PPP. If our words are taken seriously, then Pakistan will enter a new era”, he asserted.

He added that although formal talks regarding government formation had not started yet, the MQM-P would cooperate with the PPP if the latter agreed on amending the constitution to give constitutional cover to the local governments in the country. “The constitutional amendment will give a new strength to democracy,” he asserted.

The MQM-P convener said the party was ready to sit with everyone for the betterment and well-being of the urban areas of the country, particularly Sindh. “The national and provincial governments have been given protection by the Constitution; the district government should also be given protection by the same,” he demanded.

He emphasised that powers for the local governments should be enshrined in the constitution. Dr Siddiqui was of the view that all political parties had a stake in ending the crisis Pakistan was facing after the February 8 general elections, because all will be affected if the crisis deepened.

He said the Rabita Committee had given full powers to the negotiating committee of the party to hold talks with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz for forming a coalition government in the centre.

He said the PML-N wanted prime ministership as it had emerged as the largest party after the elections and it was the onus of the PML-N to present the MQM-P’s bill of amendment before parties, including the PPP, and get it passed in the parliament, so that the local governments as the third tier government also had powers like the federal and provincial governments.

Answering a question, he said that if the MQM-P joined the federal government, it would take such ministries in the federal cabinet which could benefit not only Sindh’s urban areas but also the entire country.

Replying to another query, Dr Siddiqui stressed that his party was not in favour of rolling back the 18th Constitutional Amendment as it was not bad, but it was adopted with a bad intention.