MQM-Pakistan managed to remain relevant in Karachi through 2017

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) appeared to be a buoyant party on Karachi’s political scene through 2017, containing all the challenges threatening its survival, stability and future.

As an opposition party, the MQM-P resorted to protests and litigation, mostly against the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Sindh government, while maintaining negotiations with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) federal government and other power players.

In so doing, the MQM-P seemingly managed to strengthen its position and successfully turn the tables on the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) that vied to occupy or be distinctive in the political landscape after the fall of the Altaf Hussain-led MQM.

With a considerably successful show of strength at the Liaquatabad flyover on November 5, it looked as if the MQM-P held the whip hand over its negotiations to unite with the PSP, dealing with its inner turmoil all the while.

Three days after that event, the MQM-P – party chief Farooq Sattar and like-minded party leaders, to be precise – made an alliance with the PSP to form a new party with a different name and symbol. They, however, broke off the deal within 24 hours.

Reports that the alliance was brokered by the military establishment due to its interest in redrawing the city’s political landscape later gained credence when Sattar and PSP chief Mustafa Kamal spilled the beans in their subsequent news conferences against each other.

The alliance fiasco fostered the ongoing criticism of the establishment. Eventually, Rangers Sindh Director General Maj Gen Mohammad Saeed had to appear on a TV channel to respond to the allegations.

By supporting the PML-N, the MQM-P managed a Rs25 billion development package for Karachi from the federal government in a bid to compete with the PPP that invested through its provincial government in uplifting and maintaining the city’s road networks.

Moreover, the MQM-P faced an internal power struggle. Its coordination committee members traded barbs with one other during their meetings. It appeared that two groups were formed within the party: one spearheaded by Sattar and the other by his second-in-command, Amir Khan.

The differences apparently started to escalate after Kamran Tessori, a businessman who reportedly enjoys “good” connections with the establishment, joined the MQM-P, leaving the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, and soon moved into its coordination committee. He was also awarded the party ticket to contest the by-election for the PS-114 (Karachi-XXVI) constituency that was lost to the PPP’s Saeed Ghani.

The unusual rise of Tessori in the MQM-P, from a newcomer to a deputy convener, suggests that he, in return, pooled a hefty amount of money to support the financially challenged party while corresponding with the establishment on behalf of it to pave the way for the release of incarcerated workers, the reopening of their sealed offices and friendly relations.

The members belonging to Khan’s group opine that Tessori was awarded inordinately and, in a bid to mount pressure on Sattar, they brought frequent confrontations to him to warn him of their forming a separate bloc.

The MQM-P chief, however, played the situation differently. Having faced criticism over forming an alliance with the PSP, a beleaguered Sattar decided to make public the problems he faced from the inside and outside of the party. He announced quitting politics and, in Altaf Hussain’s signature style, took back his decision after fellow leaders, including Khan, persuaded him to do so.

By the year’s end, the MQM-P appeared clear on its stance to side with the PML-N after its symbolic presence in the recent all-party conference (APC) hosted and convened by Pakistan Awami Tehreek Chairman Dr Tahirul Qadri in Lahore.

MQM-P spokesperson and coordination committee member Syed Aminul Haque said that when his party was in crisis, neither of the parties in the APC, including the host, had raised a “reciprocal” voice in its support. He added that the MQM-P expressed its categorical stance that it was not following someone’s lead.