As Expected MQM Rejoins Government

The Pakistan People's Party's (PPP) estranged ally, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in a late night meeting decided to come back to the fold if the Prime Minister Gilani took concrete steps to remove its reservations.
MQM in its Coordination Committee's joint meeting, discussed the strategy in view of the PM's expected visit to Nine Zero Friday. It was decided to rejoin the coalition government and would not let the premier return empty handed.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani arrived in the city on Thursday night and was due to visit the MQM's headquarters Nine-Zero today in a bid to save his crumbling government.
The PPP-led coalition lost its parliamentary majority after the separation of the Muttahida and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) from it.
After announcing the withdrawal of the increase in the petroleum prices, the PPP government is hoping that the MQM will review its decision of sitting on the opposition benches.
Gilani was expected to make some important announcements at the MQM headquarters, sources said.
The MQM has 25 seats in the National Assembly and six seats in the Senate. The PM will achieve an important milestone if he succeeds to win back the party's support.
The PPP has already geared up its efforts to save its government at the Centre as Interior Minister Rehman Malik has been in touch with Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan to remove the MQM's reservations.
The sources said that Malik had been making calls to Altaf Hussain from the Governor House, but all such contacts were being kept secret.
The two-member committee comprising Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and Rehman Malik constituted by President Asif Ali Zardari to woo the MQM is keeping the president informed about the latest developments.
Though Prime Minister announced reversing of petroleum prices to the 31st December level and won the favor of MQM and the masses and saved his government from collapsing, but he also made IMF and USA both angry on the decision. Both dictate their policies to be obeyed by the ever weakest and so called "democratic" government of Pakistan. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday it was a "mistake" for Pakistan to reverse controversial fuel price hikes as it undermined its efforts to bolster its ailing economy.
"We believe that the government of Pakistan must reform its economic laws and regulations, including those that affect fuel and its cost," Clinton told reporters. "We have made it clear that we think it is a mistake to reverse the progress that was being made to provide a stronger economic base and we will continue to express that opinion," the chief US diplomat said.
She said she had made the point when she met Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, Hussain Haqqani, at the State Department on Tuesday.
Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, had earlier signaled US opposition to the fuel price hikes. "What we've said all along is that the reforms that the government of Pakistan is undertaking are difficult, but they're important for its long-term economic stability," Toner told reporters. "Our position is that Pakistan needs to undertake difficult economic reforms that are going to require some pain, frankly, politically," Toner said.
Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also criticised the decision. “They’re inefficient and untargeted so that the bulk of the benefit from the energy subsidy goes to higher income individuals and large companies,” IMF spokeswoman Caroline Atkinson said from Washington. In Islamabad, Pakistan's beleaguered Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday caved into political pressure and reversed fuel price hikes, in a move designed to prevent his fragile government from collapsing.
Rolling back the six-day-old kerosene, diesel and fuel price increases of between nine and 5.6 percent was one clause in a package of 11 reforms demanded by main opposition leader Nawaz Sharif in a 72-hour ultimatum on Tuesday.
Sharif later extended the ultimatum, which threatened to expel the ruling party from government in Punjab province, to begin after three days of mourning for liberal Pakistani politician Salman Taseer, who was shot dead the same day.
When the people of Pakistan say that Pakistani policies even the power distribution and election results are dictated by the USA, are not they right?. Which is understandable by the harsh tune of Secretary of State of the USA. Can we claim to be a free Islamic Democratic Republic State