For Karachi’s residents: MQM protests against load-shedding

Protest at Hasan Square was second in a series of demonstrations which the party is holding for the past several weeks

KARACHI:

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on Tuesday protested against gas and electricity load-shedding across the city, and demanded that rights be given its residents.

The protest at Hasan Square was the second in a series of demonstrations which the party is holding for the past several weeks. The party said that despite a drop in fuel prices worldwide, transportation cost in the country had not gone down.

MPA Faisal Subzwari said the Sindh government was not giving due rights to the people of Karachi as they had not voted for them.

Opposition leader in the provincial assembly, Khawaja Izharul Hassan, said the city generates Rs23 billion but the prime minister has not allotted a single development scheme for it. "For the last eight years, no work has been done on the city's infrastructure. Karachi is taking care of the whole country but no development schemes have been announced for it" he claimed. Nominee for the city's deputy mayor, Arshad Vohra, said except for MQM, no other party had raised a voice for Karachi in the National Assembly.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17^th,  2016.