In a parliamentary democracy any political party which hasn’t sufficient numerical strength to form a government under its own steam and depend on the crutches of other political parties to come to power is considered to be unfortunate. Its coalition partners always blackmail it for squeezing maximum monetary and political benefits out of it. The PTI government is a case in point.
Time was when all the present factions of the MQM used to take their cue from Altaf Bhai who ran it for a considerable time while sitting pretty in London. Such was the terror unleashed by him amongst his party members that no member of MQM could even dare thinking of defying any order of his. When the true face of the Founder of the MQM was unmasked by is covert and overt crimes and London police found him involved in serious criminal cases , many of his followers started deserting him for fear of retribution against them too. The MQM dropped like nine pins when criminal proceedings started against him in London. Some of his erstwhile accomplices cunningly joined hands with the powers that be in order to save their own skin. One faction of the MQM hit it off with the PTI after the 2018 general elections and became its coalition partner in the government. Sensing that the MQM might desert the government, the PPP very cunningly extended an olive branch to it by offering much more than what the PTI had given them in case it parts with the PTI and instead join it. Till the filing of this column the PTI eaders have been trying to persuade it to reverse its decision. There is no last word in politics and in this part of the world politics has become a very ugly game devoid of any
fairness.