MQM had recently parted ways with the PPP led government in the centre as well as the Sind province after the alleged rigging in the Azad Kashmir assembly elections and postponement of elections that were to be held in Karachi. As the political heat started to rise the PPP government dropped a bombshell in the shape of re-instatement of the commissioner system that was in place before the 2001 local government of Pervaiz Musharraf. All city government bank accounts were frozen and the provincial government started the accountability process of the city government since 2005 i.e. the time when the MQM backed city government under Mustafa Kamal came into power.
The provincial government is also proposing to increase the number of divisions in Karachi and realigning some constituencies in Karachi and Hyderabad which would affect the MQM seats in the legislative assemblies. Right now MQM has 51 seats in the Sind assembly and that number may go down to around 40 when the next elections are held in 2012. These are ominous signs for the party as there loss would be a gain for the ANP and PPP.
The dire law and order situation in the city may also force the MQM to demand a separate province comprising of Urdu majority areas in the Sind province based on the same model demanded for the Hazara province in the Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa and Siraiki province in the Punjab.
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