KARACHI: A Pakistani party, which has exercised considerable influence in the urban areas of southern Sindh province, said on Saturday no political faction in the country was in a position to form the country’s next administration without its support, though its leadership was still weighing its options.
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), which played a crucial role in making and breaking central governments in the past, secured 17 National Assembly seats in Thursday’s elections in which no political party emerged with a clear majority.
Pakistan’s national polls were held on 265 general seats in the lower house of parliament in which more than 90 independent candidates backed by former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party secured victory.
These candidates could not contest under the PTI banner after the country’s top court deprived the party of its election emblem of cricket bat for holding flawed intraparty polls. The PTI-backed candidates are followed by the country’s three-time premier Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) with 71 seats and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) with 53.
The main battle in the elections was between the PML-N and PTI-backed candidates. Both Sharif and Khan declared victory separately, though they are both not in a position to form Pakistan’s next government on their own.
“We haven’t yet decided to align with any specific party at the center but no party can form a government without us,” Syed Aminul Haque, a senior MQM-P leader, told Arab News, adding his party would only support a faction that would promise to fulfil its demands related to the development of Karachi and Sindh’s other urban centers.
“The people of urban Sindh, especially Karachi, have placed immense trust in MQM-P by voting for it in large numbers and electing a record 15 members for the National Assembly and 25 for the provincial one,” he continued.
“Our primary objective is to safeguard their interests,” he added.
Political analysts agreed MQM-P was in a position to play a vital role in the making of the next government.
“I don’t think that without them this [the making of the new administration] can happen when even one or two seats are required [by other political parties],” Nadia Naqi, a Karachi-based analyst, said, though she maintained that MQM-P would not be able to get any concessions for Karachi.
“We all know that decisiveness doesn’t exist among its leaders who is always looking at their ring masters to determine what to do,” she added, citing the example of what the party did during the last elections when it accused the PTI of stealing its mandate before joining it in the federal government.
Majid Nizami, another analyst from Lahore, maintained there was only one realistic scenario for MQM-P.
“The MQM-P cannot afford to sit in the opposition,” he told Arab News. “It will only be able to play a decisive role by joining the PML-N and the independents in a coalition administration.”
He noted the party’s influence would reduce considerably if it supported the PPP and PTI-backed candidates.
“If the PPP and PTI’s independents join hands, they will not need the MQM-P, though the party may still join them,” Nizami said.
He maintained the PML-N, PPP and MQM-P could also form a federal government but described it as the “worst case scenario” since it would further narrow the space of the party to negotiate its terms.
“The MQM-P cannot join a government led by the PTI since its own position has become quite weak in recent years, and it cannot afford to annoy the security establishment,” he added.
Analyst Amir Zia said the MQM-P’s ability to get something for Karachi was already limited.
Acknowledging the fact that the party had performed well in Karachi in the recent elections, he said: “Even if urban Sindh gives 100 percent mandate to one political party, its leaders will not be able to resolve the issues of its constituents without the getting adequate cooperation from the provincial administration. This time again, the MQM-P is at odds with the PPP which has received a massive mandate from rural Sindh.”
“The PML-N is also in a fix since it will have to go for a coalition government in which the PPP may turn out to be an important player,” he continued, adding the country could witness another government like the one formed by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) alliance that ruled it ahead of the Feb. 8 polls.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement hopes to play central role in government formation amid election stalemate
https://arab.news/yf7yp
Muttahida Qaumi Movement hopes to play central role in government formation amid election stalemate
- MQM-P has emerged as the largest party in Pakistan’s commercial capital Karachi with 15 out of 22 seats
- Analysts believe the party can wield maximum influence if it decides to join the PML-N and independents
Pakistan offloads wheat stocks, boosts provincial supply to stabilize prices
- ECC approves sale of 500,000 tons of wheat, allocates 300,000 tons to Punjab
- Cabinet body also clears utility arrears and approves vaccine and fertilizer funding
KARACHI: Pakistan’s top economic decision-making body on Wednesday approved the disposal of surplus government wheat stocks and a major inter-provincial allocation to stabilize domestic flour prices, as Islamabad seeks to manage food security risks while containing fiscal pressures.
The decisions come as Pakistan grapples with food inflation sensitivity, climate-related supply disruptions and the fiscal burden of carrying large public stocks. Wheat, the country’s staple food, is politically and economically critical because flour prices directly affect household inflation and living costs, and past volatility has triggered public unrest and costly emergency imports.
On Wednesday, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet authorized the sale of 500,000 metric tons of wheat held by the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO), the federal grain procurement agency, through competitive bidding. It also approved the release of 300,000 metric tons to the Punjab government to ensure uninterrupted supplies to flour mills, according to an official statement issued by the Finance Division.
“The disposal of 500,000 metric tons of PASSCO wheat stock through competitive bidding aims at managing surplus stocks, reducing carrying and storage costs, and ensuring price stability in the domestic wheat market while safeguarding food security considerations,” the Finance Division said in a statement following the ECC meeting.
In a related move, the committee approved the provision of PASSCO wheat to Punjab, the country’s most populous province and a key driver of national wheat consumption, to help maintain adequate supplies for flour mills and prevent supply chain disruptions, the statement said.
Beyond food security, the ECC approved a technical supplementary grant - an off-budget allocation used to meet urgent funding needs - of Rs 10.98 billion ($39 million) to clear long-standing liabilities owed by the Pakistan Post Office Department to utility companies, part of broader efforts to address inter-government arrears that have strained public sector finances.
In the health sector, the committee authorized Rs 29.66 billion ($106 million) for the Federal Directorate of Immunization to ensure uninterrupted procurement of vaccines and syringes under the Expanded Program on Immunization, a move aimed at sustaining routine immunization coverage and preventing outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases.
The ECC also approved a Rs 23.42 billion ($84 million) subsidy package for imported urea, to be shared equally between the federal and provincial governments, as authorities seek to cushion farmers from rising fertilizer costs and limit spillover effects on food prices.
