Islamabad, Oct. 18: The PPP-led government is fighting hard to retain the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) as its ally, failing which the coalition government could collapse.
“The MQM is threatening to quit and if it does, the government will lose its majority,” a senior government official, privy to the political developments, told this newspaper. He said the Sindh Governor, Mr Ishratul Ibad — from the MQM — had presented his resignation to the President, Mr Asif Ali Zardari, on Sunday night but Mr Zardari did not accept the resignation.
“The President has asked his close aides to contact the MQM leadership (Mr Altaf Hussain in London) to stop them from quitting the government,” the official said.
The MQM has 25 seats in the National Assembly and the government will be three to four votes short of a simple majority if the MQM finally decides to quit.
The disqualifications because of fake degrees will further deplete the numerical strength of the PPP and its coalition partners. Political pundits believe that a Constitutional change at the Centre cannot be ruled out with the MQM’s move as hinted by the mainstream Opposition parties coupled with the Opposition leader, Mr Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan’s, statement that government’s allies were contacting his party — the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz). In the National Assembly, the government will require backing of either the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam) or its forward bloc members to reach the target of 171 votes. The PPP (126) presently has support from MQM (25), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal (7), PML-Functional (5), Balochistan National Party (1) and National People’s Party (1) and 17 independents.