Pakistan's main gov't coalition partner quits

Pakistan's Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the second largest party in the ruling coalition, will leave the governing alliance and sit in opposition at the federal level, a party spokesman said on Sunday.

"It has been decided. We will sit on the opposition benches in the National Assembly and the Senate," MQM spokesman Wasay Jalil said. The MQM, which is the dominant political force in the country's financial capital Karachi, last week pulled out its two ministers from the federal cabinet because of what it said was the government's failure to improve security. (Reuters)