MQM-P denies it has demanded four federal ministries

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has nominated its MPA Ali Khurshidi for the Sindh chief minister’s slot, a statement issued by the party on Sunday read.

Khurshidi will be competing against the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) nominee Murad Ali Shah in the election for the leader of the house of the Sindh Assembly. Shah has already served twice as the Sindh CM from 2016 to 2018 and 2018 to 2023. It will be his third stint on the same post as he is most likely to be elected again.

Khurshidi on the other hand has served as an MPA for the MQM-P from 2018 to 2023. He was elected again from PS-119 West IV with 22,424 votes in the recent general elections.

Although the PPP has a simple majority in the Sindh Assembly to elect its CM, the MQM-P has decided to field its candidate as a formality to not let Shah be elected unopposed, said a party spokesperson.

Later in the day, a meeting of the MQM-P coordination committee was held under the chairmanship of the party convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui at the party’s Bahadurabad office. The meeting was attended by Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori, MQM-P senior deputy conveners Syed Mustafa Kamal and Dr Farooq Sattar, deputy conveners Anis Qaimkhani and Khwaja Izharul Hassan and other members of the committee.

The meeting reviewed the post-election situation and the talks held with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) regarding the formation of the federal government, the spokesperson said.

Participants of the meeting gave various suggestions for the party policy regarding the current political situation in the Centre and Sindh. The MQM-P leaders agreed to continue struggle for the strengthening of democracy, the spokesperson added.

According to some media reports, the MQM-P has demanded four federal ministries as well as retention of Tessori as the Sindh governor from the PML-N in return of its support. However, the MQM-P has denied making any such demands.