KARACHI, April 20: A delegation of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, led by the party’s deputy-convenor and MNA Dr Farooq Sattar, met Pakistan People’s Party’s provincial leadership at Bilawal House here on Sunday as a “show of support” following gunshots reportedly fired at the PPP bastion on Saturday night.

Though there was a general air of camaraderie about the visit, in stark contrast to last Sunday’s MQM announcement that it would sit in the opposition due to PPP’s “non-serious” attitude in talks between the two parties, uncomfortable moments were witnessed during a press conference as their leaders appeared to disagree on the specifics of the April 9 Tahir Plaza tragedy in Karachi.

After the initial pleasantries, Dr Sattar, who was accompanied by Senator Babar Ghauri and MPAs Adil Siddiqui and Syed Sardar Ahmed, decried the ‘countrywide propaganda’ campaign that he alleged was being carried out against the MQM to implicate it in the burning to death of seven persons in Tahir Plaza.

“People are being told seven lawyers died in the tragedy. The truth is that six MQM workers and sympathisers and one lawyer — Altaf Abbasi — died. This event deserves to be condemned. The MQM challenges those making such claims to furnish the list of lawyers burnt alive. If they are not able to provide the list we shall initiate legal proceedings against those defaming the MQM. We request Rehman Malik and Zulfiqar Mirza to ask the Karachi Bar Association to furnish the list,” said Dr Sattar.

However, Pir Mazharul Haq, senior minister in the Sindh government and PPP’s parliamentary leader in the provincial assembly, said that it mattered little whether those who died were lawyers or not; they were all human beings and, therefore, the tragedy should be roundly condemned.

“The Sindh law minister has already visited the bar. We sympathise with the lawyers. The Sindh government is investigating and the perpetrators shall be brought to justice. We should not blame anyone without evidence,” he said, adding that he hoped the Muttahida and lawyers would soon mend fences.

But when Babar Ghauri described some lawyers as ‘shar pasand’ (miscreants), hinting that these elements wanted to sabotage the MQM-PPP detente, Pir Mazhar interjected: “The lawyers are not shar pasand. I’m a lawyer too. We need to find out who is behind the trouble. There was a clique behind the Arbab Rahim incident. The bar should also not malign political parties,” adding that many of those involved in the attack on former federal minister Sher Afgan Niazi were not lawyers.

Other than this, the mood between the two parties appeared to be quite conciliatory.

The packed press conference was attended by prominent PPP leaders including Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, Information Minister Shazia Marri, Adviser to the Chief Minister Rashid Rabbani, PPP Karachi president Faisal Raza Abdi, Waqar Mehdi and Ejaz Durrani.

Pir Mazhar thanked the MQM for their gesture and said the visit would do away with suspicions harboured by both sides.

Farooq Sattar described the Bilawal House shooting incident as ‘an act of terrorism’ and said he felt as if Nine Zero – the MQM’s headquarters – had been attacked. He said the incident and the shooting deaths of two MQM workers in Landhi on Saturday night were “part of the same conspiracy which was hatched on Oct 18”.

When asked if any progress had been made in talks on power-sharing with the MQM, Pir Mazhar replied: “You will hear good news” very soon.

A PPP source told Dawn that Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah also attended the meeting with the MQM on Sunday, but did not address the media.

“There has been a decision to form committees at the union council, ward and sector levels so that both parties can coordinate and prevent any untoward incident in future,” he said.

Before the press conference, the Muttahida delegation offered fateha at Benazir Bhutto’s memorial outside Bilawal House and inspected the wall reportedly hit by gunshots.

They were welcomed with raucous slogans and a shower of rose petals as they entered the compound for talks.