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‘MQM’s NRO stance will not affect ties with PPP’

Staff Report

KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), an ally of the Pakistan People’s Party-led government, on Tuesday said its stance on the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) would not hurt its relations with the ruling party.

“The MQM, after consultations, has reached the conclusion that the NRO should not be discussed in parliament,” Dr Farooq Sattar, deputy convener of the MQM’s Raabta Committee, said at a press conference. He said the MQM believed in democracy and had consulted its cadres, supporters, constitutional and legal experts, parliamentarians and members of the Raabta Committee over the NRO.

“All of them have proposed that the NRO should not be brought to parliament,” he said, adding the MQM welcomed the Presidency’s decision on not tabling the ordinance. “This decision will help strengthen democracy,” he added.

To a question on the MQM’s relations with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Sattar said political parties always “kept their doors open” for contacts with each other.

He made it clear that the superior judiciary would interpret the constitutional legality of the NRO.

“The MQM has always faced cases in courts and therefore, it is wrong to say that the NRO benefits us,” he said.

He said the MQM had offered its services to the president over exploring other options within the constitutional framework and the law on how to tackle this issue.

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