Saeed Ghani foresees MQM going to boycott general elections

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Saeed Ghani has predicted that Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) might boycott the general elections as well if it does not get a signal, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

While talking to the ARY News programme ‘Khabar’, Saeed Ghani said that PPP’s position is strong in Sindh and it emerged as a popular party in Karachi.

He claimed that People’s Party would grab first position in Karachi in the forthcoming general elections. Ghani added that the PPP would probably win 10 National Assembly (NA) seats in Karachi.

Saeed Ghani claimed that all political parties could not give a tough time to the People’s Party.

“Alliances are formed against PPP in every elections. MQM contested elections without any alliance in the past. For the first time, MQM is contesting polls with an alliance. MQM and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) are searching for a support in Karachi.”

“In 2013, MQM had won the polls through vote rigging, whereas, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had been declared victorious in 2018 general polls. In recent local government (LG) polls, PML-N was nowhere, whereas, MQM managed to secure only 12,000 votes and later decided to boycott the polls.”

The PPP leader alleged that MQM was always involved in politics of hatred. He was of the view that MQM and PML-N alliance would only benefit PPP.

He added that Muttahida Qaumi Movement was unable to win a single seat without backing and it would also boycott the general polls without getting a signal.

Earlier in the day, in what is being termed as the first major political alliance before the February 8 polls, PML-N and MQM-Pakistan, have announced to contest the 2024 general elections jointly.

The announcement was made by MQM-P and PML-N leaders in a joint press conference following a delegation-level meeting with former premiers Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif in Lahore.

MQM delegation comprising Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Farooq Sattar and Mustafa Kamal met PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shehbaz at the party’s Central Secretariat in Lahore.

In a joint statement issued after the meeting, the parties said they had agreed to adopt a joint strategy to put an end to the public’s woes.