MQM may join Sindh govt today
KARACHI - MQM is likely to join the Sindh provincial government and an oath-taking ceremony is expected to be held at the Governor’s House on Tuesday (today).
According to sources, the deadlock between MQM and PPP has come to an end and both the parties have agreed to work jointly for the betterment of the province. A meeting, held between the top leadership of the both parties, has remained successful in forming the ruling coalition while the portfolios have been under discussion for a long period. MQM has been demanding the portfolios of the local government and excise & taxation. Currently, both the parties are finalising the portfolios that will be held by the new ministers and about six MQM legislators will be sworn in as provincial ministers in the next 72 hours.
MQM’s Sardar Ahmed, Rauf Siddiqui, Adil Siddiqui and Deputy Parliamentary Leader Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hassan will take the oath while all the arrangements regarding the ceremony have been finalised. The sources added two advisers would also be taken from MQM.
It is pertinent to mention that various top leaders of the MQM decision-making committee remained unaware of the development as the top leadership had decided to join the government.
Sindh Governor Dr Ishrat-ul-Ebad and Rehman Malik, the key players in this move, played their role in resolving the issues.
MQM quit the previous government just before the formation of the caretaker government in 2013 and since then the party remained away from the power while negotiations between the two parties in this regard had begun since the formation of the new PPP government in Sindh. The targeted operation, extrajudicial killings and disappearance of MQM workers delayed the coalition government.
Mustafa Kamal’s resignation accepted
Agencies add: Senate Chairman Nayyar Bokhari on Monday accepted the resignation of Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) Senator Syed Mustafa Kamal, who was asked by his party to quit the seat in the upper house of Parliament last year.
The official resignation letter was submitted in the Senate secretariat by the MQM today which was accepted duly by the chairman Senate.