The big 'Pakistani politics story' question: Who was behind an alliance between Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan and its fast-emerging principal rival in urban Sindh, Pak Sarzamin Party? The answer is simple: It is no one else but the very entity that was responsible for spawning the Mohajir Qaumi Movement from the womb of the All Pakistan Mohajir Students Organisation in 1984. The next day, however, the situation takes a new turn: an embittered MQM(P) chief Dr Farooq Sattar decides to quit politics over "political engineering". But he does not take this step without reiterating his strong commitment to the Mohajir identity-based politics. This he seems to have done in negation of what the PSP chief Mustafa Kamal had said in relation to the alliance's would-be approach to politics at the Karachi Press Club on Wednesday. One hour later (late Thursday night), however, Dr Sattar withdraws his resignation on his "mother's advice" at his PIB Colony residence crowded by party leaders and workers.

The declared aim of this seemingly fractured alliance was to contest the upcoming general elections under "one party, one manifesto and one symbol" in order to have a non-Pakistan People's Party chief minister in Sindh. But the MQM (P) chief later said that his party would contest the 2018 elections under its existing name and 'kite' symbol. The situation therefore strongly indicates that there are some more surprises in store for the people of Sindh in particular: the upcoming elections may see the emergence of a greater alliance of political forces such as Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf, a party that caused a major dent in MQM's vote bank in the 2013 general election through a highly impressive performance in almost all Karachi constituencies, Pakistan Muslim League (Functional) of Pir Pagara, a strong rural Sindh political force that overtly derives a lot of satisfaction from its historic closeness with the Establishment, and the entity that is yet to emerge through this fractured if not dead MQM(P)-PSP alliance. No doubt, it was PTI's strong showing in Karachi nearly five years ago that had actually triggered the process of MQM unraveling, providing a golden opportunity to former Karachi mayor Mustafa Kamal's PSP to lay claim to the urban Sindh without contesting a single by-election in Karachi or elsewhere in the province since its sudden emergence in March last year. But the implement that the PSP chief has so far successfully employed in this regard is not his party's failed "million march" but his anti-MQM founder Altaf Husain or anti-MQM rhetoric that had found traction with the people of urban Sindh. Kamal had stated that his party would create an anti-MQM bloc in legislatures, describing MQM as an "anti-Pakistan" party. This he had said hardly 24 hours prior to the MQM(P)-PSP alliance 'moment' at Karachi Press Club on Wednesday. That the Dr Sattar-led MQM faction had accepted to play second fiddle in the regrouping was a legitimate impression. Not only was a jubilant and confident Kamal criticizing the under-reporting of Karachi's population in the 2017 Census, he was also seeking amnesty for suspected "Mohajir boys [suspected MQM militants]" in accordance with the Standard Operating Procedure that the state has adopted for the Baloch insurgents: 'a bouquet of flowers and a five lakh rupees cheque to every Baloch militant who lays down his arms'. But he insisted that the formation of alliance required a new name or identity in order to "bury the monster of MQM". Seen through the prism of many MQM-P leaders and workers, the surrender of Farooq Sattar-led faction was expected but it is highly disappointing nevertheless.

The political landscape of Sindh will continue to be marred by extreme uncertainties in the absence of resolution of some of the key issues such as the notorious urban-rural quota system that has only led to widening the rural-urban gulf, lack of civic amenities, woeful state of education and health facilities, an alarmingly high incidence of migration of people from southern Punjab to Karachi and other parts of Sindh, and near-absence of fresh investments in industries and infrastructure in Quaid-e-Azam's city of teeming millions.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017