KARACHI, 28 November 2002 — A regional party withdrew its support yesterday for the new pro-military Pakistani government, jeopardizing the prime minister’s survival in office less than a week after he was sworn in.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), powerful in southern cities, said it would sit in opposition in national and provincial assemblies after Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s government failed to back it in a row with a rival faction over control of some parts of Karachi.

MQM and the breakaway faction, Mohajir Qaumi Movement, have been at loggerheads for years over what MQM calls "no-go-areas" in sprawling Karachi where the rival faction holds sway.

"The Jamali government has failed to honor promises it had made to us. Therefore we have decided to sit on opposition benches," Farooq Sattar, a leader of MQM, told a news conference.

MQM won 16 seats in the National Assembly in last month’s general election and threw its weight behind Jamali’s bid to become the country’s first prime minister in three years. MQM’s support was crucial for Jamali, who became prime minister with a razor-thin majority last week.

He must survive a mandatory confidence vote within two months. Jamali is from the pro-military Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam (PML-QA), which won the most seats in the election but fell well short of a majority. He had to muster support from many smaller parties and from defectors from one of the main rival parties to win the race for the premiership.

"We will abstain from the voting. It is for them to think how to save their government," Nasreen Jalil, another MQM leader, told Reuters.

PML-Q had promised to crack down on the breakaway faction of the MQM party in Karachi. But Sattar complained that party workers were intimidated by their rivals and were unable to move freely in "no-go" areas — from which they were banned until last week — as Musharraf’s aides had promised.

Sattar said MQM would not back down on its decision unless Musharraf and the new government established control in the no-go areas.

The decision not to participate in a government coalition would make it difficult for all other parties to form a government in Sindh. The first session of the Sindh provincial assembly, scheduled for today, was postponed after the withdrawal of the MQM support for the ruling coalition. Pakistan Television said the postponement was requested by Ghulam Arbab Rahim, Grand National Alliance’s (GNA) candidate for chief ministership.

"Following the MQM decision there is a deadlock. I have met the governor of Sindh and asked for the postponement of the session until after Ramadan," he told reporters in Karachi.

The decision makes the already fragile coalition a minority government, which will be a problem for Jamali. He is required to win a vote of confidence from the House within 60 days of taking oath. Political observers say MQM’s announcement could be a ploy to extract more concessions from Jamali’s fragile government as the PML-QA is seeking to forge a coalition government in Sindh.