News
Monday, May 10, 2010
MPs file resignations with Altaf over Hyderabad: MQM flashes coalition card, asks Zardari to intervene* Altaf Hussain tells coordination committee meeting certain PPP ministers, leaders trying to spark ethnic riots
Daily Times Monitor
LAHORE: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) members of the National Assembly and the Sindh Assembly on Sunday filed their resignations with party chief Altaf Hussain over Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s statement on the reversal of Hyderabad’s bifurcation into four districts, with a meeting of the party’s coordination committee calling on President Asif Ali Zardari to intervene in the matter.
Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik also contacted the coordination committee – which held its meeting simultaneously in Karachi and London to review the prime minister’s statement – during the session, and sought to clarify the prime minister’s statement. However, the MQM rejected all clarifications, and demanded that the president intervene in the matter, according to a private TV channel.
The prime minister’s statement on Hyderabad on Saturday was followed by harsh criticism from the MQM, which described the plan as an attempt to disrupt the reconciliatory environment and the coalition in Sindh.
Addressing the meeting, the MQM chief said some PPP ministers and leaders – in collaboration with some nationalist parties – were “hatching a conspiracy” to spark ethnic riots and sabotage the current atmosphere of harmony among permanent residents of Sindh.
MQM Coordination Committee member Faisal Sabzwari told the channel that national and provincial assemblies members of his party had filed their resignations with the committee. The MQM has also summoned its lawmakers, ministers and advisers to the party headquarter at Nine-Zero.
Another channel reported that the MQM was considering quitting the coalition if steps were taken to reverse the bifurcation of Hyderabad.
“We have clearly told the PPP leadership that our alliance will end the day they impose [on us] this unjust decision,” said Sabzwari. “Our party has demanded the president’s intervention.”
The coordination committee meeting vowed to “go to any extent” to oppose the plan to alter the administrative set-up of Hyderabad.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk