PTI and MQM had always been tenacious sort of allies—bound together by convenience more so than party principles. This is starting to show more and more as the government enters its third year, as MQM starts to publicly air more of its differences with the ruling party.
The difference between the PTI and MQM over the 2017 Census now threatens to spill-over to the streets as MQM-P leader Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui has said that the people of Sindh are left with no other option but to take to the streets to protest the Centre’s decision to approve the controversial census of 2017. It started out with a dissenting note in the government’s validation of the census but now the party’s rhetoric seems to have gone beyond just mere differences and it looks like it will mount actual opposition on this issue.
There is no indication that there is a breakup of the alliance—it would not be in the interest of either the PTI or the MQM. The party is still an ally for the government and it does not look like it will change, despite the MQM’s threat to protest on the streets. The Prime Minister has signalled that MQM will be spoken to and that these differences will be ironed out between the government representatives and MQM leaders.
However, this dispute shows a trend of the ruling party PTI not heeding to its allies. PTI has recently lost another ruling partner the Balochistan National Party (BNP-Mengal) which formally joined Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) after falling out with the governing party. It is clear that it was time for the census issue to be resolved but still, the PTI must realise that, in order to pursue good politics, it needs to concede some ground to its ally, particularly in matters as sensitive as census validation, which impact ethnic communities. If PTI is standing stubborn on the issue because of timing and delay, it needs to convey that reasonably to its ally, but if it is refusing any ground on the basis that PPP agrees with MQM on this issue, then it highly needs to reflect on its political strategy.
https://nation.com.pk/26-Dec-2020/distancing-of-allies
Distancing Of Allies: edit in The Nation, Dec 26, 2020
PTI and MQM had always been tenacious sort of allies—bound together by convenience more so than party principles. This is starting to show more and more as the government enters its third year, as MQM starts to publicly air more of its differences with the ruling party.
The difference between the PTI and MQM over the 2017 Census now threatens to spill-over to the streets as MQM-P leader Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui has said that the people of Sindh are left with no other option but to take to the streets to protest the Centre’s decision to approve the controversial census of 2017. It started out with a dissenting note in the government’s validation of the census but now the party’s rhetoric seems to have gone beyond just mere differences and it looks like it will mount actual opposition on this issue.
There is no indication that there is a breakup of the alliance—it would not be in the interest of either the PTI or the MQM. The party is still an ally for the government and it does not look like it will change, despite the MQM’s threat to protest on the streets. The Prime Minister has signalled that MQM will be spoken to and that these differences will be ironed out between the government representatives and MQM leaders.
However, this dispute shows a trend of the ruling party PTI not heeding to its allies. PTI has recently lost another ruling partner the Balochistan National Party (BNP-Mengal) which formally joined Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) after falling out with the governing party. It is clear that it was time for the census issue to be resolved but still, the PTI must realise that, in order to pursue good politics, it needs to concede some ground to its ally, particularly in matters as sensitive as census validation, which impact ethnic communities. If PTI is standing stubborn on the issue because of timing and delay, it needs to convey that reasonably to its ally, but if it is refusing any ground on the basis that PPP agrees with MQM on this issue, then it highly needs to reflect on its political strategy.
https://nation.com.pk/26-Dec-2020/distancing-of-allies
Published in Pak Media comment and Pakistan