KARACHI: Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) chief Mustafa Kamal on Thursday made it clear that his party’s alliance with the rival Muttahida Qaumi Movement -Pakistan (MQM-P) is nothing short of a complete merger, ARY News reported.

“This is not an alliance, it’s a merger. An alliance is between two parties when I said that MQM is and will remain Altaf Hussain’s (MQM founder) party, I made it clear that I don’t accept MQM as Farooq Sattar’s party,” said Mustafa Kamal.

Kamal added that he argued with MQM-P chief Farooq Sattar and tried to persuade him to accept his (Kamal) brand of politics to come out of the shadow of Altaf Hussain but as he found Sattar reluctant, he compromised to shed his own party’s name and merge the two parties under a new name.

It is pertinent to note here that on November 8, Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) and Mutahidda Qaumi Movement- Pakistan (MQM-P) announced to form a political alliance and vowed to contest next general elections under “one banner, name, manifesto and electoral symbol.

Addressing a joint press conference at Karachi Press Club, MQM-P chief and PSP chief Mustafa Kamal announced what Kamal terms a “merger: of the two parties who were once a part of Altaf Hussain-led MQM.

MQM-P, PSP form political alliance, vow to contest polls under one name, banner and electoral symbol

“To solve problems of people of Karachi through collective efforts and to further our agenda of non-violence, we have decided to form a political alliance. We will decide the name and modalities of this alliance in future but one thing is for sure, we will contest next general elections under one name, one banner, one manifesto and one electoral symbol,” Farooq Sattar had said.

Sattar maintained that the modalities of this alliance will be crafted after meetings between the two parties.

However, a number of MQM-Pakistan leaders later said that it will only be an electoral alliance and MQM-P will not shed its name or electoral symbol and keep its distinct identity.