KARACHI: The Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), one of the major stakeholders in Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi, on Sunday held a power show at the city’s iconic Bagh-e-Jinnah venue, where its leaders said the party would gain a thumping majority in urban centers of the southern Sindh province in Feb. 8 national elections.
The MQM-P is an offshoot of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), which has historically held sway in Sindh’s urban areas, particularly Karachi, where it claimed to represent the Muhajir community, which comprises Urdu-speaking Muslims who migrated from India to Pakistan after the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947.
The Bagh-e-Jinnah park, located adjacent to the mausoleum of Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, is a venue that has often been used by parties as a symbol of political might that can help gauge public support.
Sunday’s public gathering, the maiden election rally held by the MQM-P since the recent unification of its various factions, was addressed by party leaders who previously led their own separate groups.
“The MQM-P will once again win with a huge majority in Karachi and other parts of Sindh,” MQM-P chief Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said, while addressing the attendees.
Mustafa Kamal, who merged his Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) faction into the MQM-P last year, criticized the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), which has been ruling in Sindh since 2008, for trying to turn the masses against the MQM-P by provoking them for a boycott of elections as urged by the party’s estranged, London-based founder Altaf Hussain.
“The people have given their decision that the sureties of the opponents will be seized in the election,” Kamal said, adding the PPP was attempting to cover up its poor performance by relaying the boycott announcement from London.
Founded by Hussain in 1984, the Muttahida Quami Movement first split into two factions, the MQM-Haqeeqi and the MQM. In 2016, Kamal, a former Karachi mayor, announced the formation of the PSP.
But Hussain continued to wield power over the largest faction, the MQM, and enjoy the loyalty of hundreds of thousands of workers and supporters until 2016, when his anti-Pakistan speech at a party meeting forced majority of his loyalists to part ways with the MQM and form a new faction, the MQM-P.
Over the subsequent years, the MQM-P further split into two factions owing to internal rifts. Last year, these factions, except of the Hussain-led MQM and the MQM-Haqeeqi, reunited under the leadership of Siddiqui.
With national elections just weeks away, the MQM-P is struggling to reclaim its lost political ground in the face of the election boycott call by its London-based founder and amid growing popularity of former premier Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which secured 14 out of 21 parliamentary seats in Karachi in the 2018 general elections.
Recent victories by the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) religious party and the PPP in the local government elections in Karachi have further put the MQM-P on the defensive, grappling to woo voters ahead of the national polls.
With Bagh-e-Jinnah rally, Karachi’s key political party aims to win big in elections in southern Pakistan
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With Bagh-e-Jinnah rally, Karachi’s key political party aims to win big in elections in southern Pakistan
- This was the first election rally held by the MQM-P since the merger of its various factions last year
- The party is struggling to regain its lost political ground amid a boycott call by its estranged founder
Qatar, Pakistan resolve to boost strategic, economic cooperation at Doha talks
- Both countries urge dialogue on Afghanistan amid renewed border tensions between Islamabad and Kabul
- Discussions focus on bilateral trade and investment, energy, defense, manpower and labor and culture
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Qatar on Tuesday agreed to deepen their strategic and economic cooperation during high-level talks between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, Sharif’s office said.
Sharif visited Qatar along with a high-level delegation on the invitation of Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. The Pakistani premier also held meetings with Qatar’s trade and defense ministers to discuss cooperation in various domains.
The visit came at a time when Pakistan is seeking closer economic engagement with Gulf partners amid its broader push to stabilize the economy and attract investment, while maintaining security and defense cooperation with key regional states.
During their meeting in Doha, PM Sharif and Qatar’s Sheikh Mohammed discussed bilateral relations and exchanged views on regional and international developments, according to the Pakistan prime minister’s office.
“They reaffirmed the strong brotherly relations between Pakistan and Qatar and expressed satisfaction at the growing momentum in political, economic and institutional ties,” Sharif’s office said.
“Discussions focused on enhancing cooperation in the fields of trade and investment, energy, defense, manpower and labor and culture, with both sides stressing the importance of their task force to accelerate cooperation in all these areas.”
Pakistan and Qatar maintain strong trade and investment ties. In 2022, the office of Qatar’s emir said the Qatar Investment Authority planned to invest $3 billion in Pakistan, targeting sectors including transport, aviation, education, health, media, technology and labor.
Nearly 300,000 Pakistanis live and work in Qatar, according to Pakistan’s foreign office, with many employed in health, education, engineering and public services, as well as construction and transport. The two countries engage through forums such as the Bilateral Political Consultations and the Joint Ministerial Commission.
Sharif said he had productive discussions with Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, on how the two sides could transform their brotherly ties into mutually beneficial economic relationships.
“We also took stock of the regional situation,” he said on X. “Pakistan and Qatar will continue to work together for peace and stability in the region and beyond.”
DIALOGUE WITH AFGHANISTAN
Earlier, Sharif and Qatar’s Deputy PM Sheikh Saoud Al-Thani discussed the situation in Afghanistan and called for dialogue to support regional stability.
The meeting took place amid renewed tensions after Islamabad carried out airstrikes last week on what it described as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) targets inside Afghanistan. Kabul said the strikes killed civilians and vowed to respond to what it called a violation of its sovereignty.
“Regional developments were also discussed, in particular the situation in Iran and Afghanistan,” Sharif’s office said in a statement. “Both sides emphasized the importance of dialogue, de-escalation and collective efforts to promote peace and stability in the region.”
This was the second time in less than six months that Pakistan conducted airstrikes in Afghanistan. The last strikes triggered heavy, weeklong clashes between the neighbors along their border before Qatar and Turkiye mediated a ceasefire between them in Oct. last year.
Separately, Sharif held meetings with Qatar’s State Minister for Trade Dr. Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Sayed and a delegation of the Qatar Businessmen Association (QBA), highlighting Pakistan’s investment-friendly reforms.
He invited QBA members to explore opportunities in infrastructure, logistics, energy, agriculture, technology and export-oriented manufacturing, his office said.
