The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has promised the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) that if Nawaz Sharif decides to run for prime minister a fourth time, the party’s candidates in the National Assembly will support him, according to a report published in The News on Tuesday. This comes after the Supreme Court’s ruling and less than a month before elections.
Leader of the MQM-P Syed Amin Ul Haque made the announcement in a press conference after leading a party delegation to negotiate with the PML-N over potential seat sharing in Sindh. The PML-N delegation was led in the negotiations by Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan.
The PML-N representatives were greeted by the senior MQM-P leader with the news that their leader, Nawaz Sharif, had been permanently removed from office by the Supreme Court.
The former federal minister expressed admiration for the Supreme Court’s ruling. He hoped that when a new house of the National Assembly was created, Nawaz will be the next prime minister.
In order to overthrow the “corrupt regime” that has been in control of Sindh for a number of years, Haque stated that the MQM-P aspires to build an electoral alliance with other political parties that share similar views. He claimed that the Pakistan Peoples Party’s previous governments in Sindh had entirely fallen short of expectations.
He told reporters that the MQM-P was in discussions to build an electoral alliance in Sindh for the next elections with the Grand Democratic Alliance and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl. After the elections on February 8, he projected that MQM-P will be a part of a coalition administration in Sindh.
He stated that the ultimate decision on the sharing of seats between the two parties in the NA-242 constituency would be made by MQM-Pakistan Convener Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif. The candidates from this constituency are MQM leader Syed Mustafa Kamal and Shehbaz Sharif.
The leader of the PML-N, Rana Mashhood, added that the two political parties’ high brass would officially announce the changes to the seats in Sindh in a few days.
The PML-N and MQM-P said in November of last year that they will be running together in the general elections on February 8.
The event transpired after PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif met with a team from the MQM-P, headed by Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Farooq Sattar, and Syed Mustafa Kamal, at the party’s Model Town secretariat in Lahore.
