After his initial reluctance Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has finally agreed to meet Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leaders at their party headquarters on Tuesday.
Advertisement
Talking to reporters after his arrival in Karachi, the cleric said he was optimistic that the MQM lawmaker would take their resignations back.
“I wouldn’t have come to Karachi if I had lost hope”, said Fazlur Rehman at the Jinnah worldwide Airport.
Moreover, the JUI-F chief said he wants to start first phase of talks with the MQM leaders from this evening.
However, MQM has insisted the JUI-F chief to visit Nine-Zero for the meeting as it has been a tradition that all the political parties had visited Nine-Zero for the negotiations on various issues in the past.
MQM is headed by Altaf Hussain, who has been living in self-imposed exile in London since early 1990s.
The resignations have not yet been formally accepted by the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, which is trying to get the party to reverse its decision.
Last week, the MQM lawmakers tendered their resignations from the National Assembly, Senate and the Sindh Assembly as to express their reservations over the Rangers-led operation in Karachi.
Maulana Fazl reached 90 with his delegation around 12 pm, MQM delegation includes Farooq Sattar, Wasim akhter, Kanwer Naveed, Sardar Ahmed, Nasreen Jalil and Shabbeer Qaimkhani.
Advertisement
He said that had MQM believed in terrorism, the law enforcers would have to face resistance in the ongoing operation in Karachi, particularly, in areas where Mohajirs were in majority, but no such thing happened. The party claims its workers are being illegally detained and killed under the garb of Karachi’s security operation.
