MQM pulls out of Pak coalition

Jan 02, 2011 |

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Jan. 2: The Pakistan People’s Party-led government on Sunday moved one step closer to a collapse as a key ally, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), decided to formally quit the Treasury benches.

“The MQM has decided to quit the government. We will sit on the Opposition benches,” the MQM leader, Mr Farooq Sattar, told reporters in Karachi after a meeting of the MQM coordination committee that was held simultaneously in Karachi and London with the party chief, Mr Altaf Hussain, in the chair.

The Prime Minister, Mr Yousaf Raza Gilani, immediately rejected any chances of the PPP losing power. “This will not happen. We will not go even if the MQM and others go,” he said in Lahore. Mr Gilani said he would talk to the allies and try to win them back.

“We are in talks, but, let me assure you, there will be no change due to their withdrawal (from the government),” he added. Another ally, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazal), has already left the government and political analysts say the MQM’s decision will definitely put the PPP government in trouble.

The MQM has 25 legislators in Pakistan’s National Assembly.

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