ISLA MABAD - Awami National Party (ANP) would derive benefit from the rapprochement of PPP with its erstwhile ally MQM, political sources said on Wednesday. Background discussions and interviews with parliamentarians from the ruling coalition revealed that any deal between the PPP and MQM would help the ANP derive more mileage than other two political players. According to the sources, the first and foremost gain for the ANP would be that its number of parliamentary seats from Karachi in the Sindh Provincial Assembly would increase in the next general elections. According to the sources, ANPs vote bank in Karachi had swollen as a result of massive migration of ethnic Pakhtuns from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and adjoining FATA region following the devastating 2010 floods. The sources were of the view that with new settlements of Pakhtuns in Karachi and Hyderbad cities, strongholds of MQM, number of ANPs parliamentary seats would increase up to six in the Sindh Provencal Assembly and two seats for the National Assembly. Like other parts of the country, the process of registration of new voters is in full swing in Karachi as well and ANP is struggling to enlist maximum number of new voters in line with the 30th September deadline set by the Election Commission of Pakistan. Some sources were of the view that number of ANP seats from Karachi and Hyderabad may further increase as a result of any seat adjustment or through a tacit understanding with the PPP. MQM will be the bigger loser in the election arena, a senior coalition leader in Sindh Assembly told TheNation, adding in any emerging political scenario, ANP would gain. Similarly, the sources said that the PPP-MQM relations would remain tense. They believed it would also benefit to the ANP in its home province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and partially in Balochistan in the next general elections. The sources were of the view that ups and downs in PPP-MQM relations would help the PPP and ANP make seat adjustments in other places such as KP, Balochistan and FATA, the new opportunity all the political parties would try to capitalise during the next general elections. Though ANP leaders do recognise such potential, they remain sceptical of the sustainability of the PPP-MQM relations and that is why they still have their reservations with regard to sustainability of peace in the port city of Karachi.