PPP, MQM sort out differences, agree on future course of action - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

In a bid to defuse tensions and sort out differences between the two parties, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), coalition partners in the Sindh Government, have agreed on a future course of action against 'common enemies' in Karachi. Addressing the media after a meeting between PPP and MQM representatives in Karachi, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah said: "Our friends agreed with us that the nature of the ongoing violence in Karachi is not religious, political or ethnic." The Chief Minister said that some gangs wanted to destabilize Karachi, as it was the hub of Pakistan's economic activities. The meeting was attended by Shah, Rehman Malik, Manzoor Wassan, Murad Shah and other senior members from the PPP, while Sindh Governor Ishratul Ebad, Farooq Sattar, Sardar Ahmed, Babar Ghauri and others represented the MQM. Interior Minister Rehman Malik reiterated the party's statement and said that the "drug mafia, land grabbers, illegal immigrants, gangsters and criminals" were involved in the Karachi violence. "We have identified the culprits. Rangers have discovered heroin and marijuana and arms and ammunition from a hideout where an MQM worker was kept hostage," The Daily Times quoted Malik, as saying.