Bilawal again urges MQM-P to ‘rethink’ alliance with PTI
by Staff ReportKARACHI: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Friday yet urged Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) — an ally of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government — to rethink its alliance with the Centre, which, he said, is “making the lives of Karachi’s residents difficult”.
Bilawal was responding to a question regarding his offer of provincial ministries to MQM-P on the condition that the party quits its alliance with the PTI. While he did not extend the offer again, he said: “There are a lot of ideological issues between PPP and MQM, but as far as Karachi’s residents are concerned, I believe that we should solve [their] issues together.”
In December last year, Bilawal had offered provincial ministries in Sindh — where his party is in power — to MQM-P if it walks away from the PTI in the Centre.
While addressing a ceremony in the provincial capital, the PPP chief said that his government would offer an equal number of ministries to the MQM-P if it breaks off its alliance with the Imran Khan-led federal government.
“Topple it, topple it, topple Imran’s government,” he had said.
In a media talk on Friday, the PPP chief said: “It is in the hands of MQM, that says it is standing with the people of Karachi, wants to solve their problems and admits that the federal government has not done anything and [instead] has created problems, to leave the federal government, leave the ministries and solve the problems of the people.”
Bilawal lamented that the PTI had so far failed to fulfil its promises regarding local bodies or police reforms and was “committing the economic murder of citizens”.
MQM is one of PTI’s allies in the federal government and its MNA Farogh Naseem heads the Ministry for Law and Justice. MQM-P convenor Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui held the portfolio of information technology but he resigned earlier this month, saying that “staying in the federal cabinet seemed futile”. His resignation had come weeks after Bilawal publicly urged MQM to quit its alliance with PTI.
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