Kamal seeks comprehensive democratic rights for Karachiites

Former Karachi mayor announces to launch an exclusive political campaign across the country

Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) leader Syed Mustafa Kamal on Sunday asked the government to give comprehensive democratic rights to the people of Karachi.

“The first step towards democracy is the local governance," he said while addressing PSP’s first-ever political rally held in Karachi’s Bagh-e-Jinnah. "To build schools and mend sewage lines are not the work of assemblies. The MPAs are only responsible for making laws.”

The former Karachi mayor said his party has succeeded in sending its message across the people of Pakistan.

“We have set a world record of fetching so many people in the rally of our newly-created party. It has just been 30 days since we launched our party and thousands have come here to express their solidarity with us,” he added.

The former Senator said the army-led operations in Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) would not solve the country’s problems. "The provincial and federal governments should fill the vacuum which is left by the army operations against terrorists. They should take care of works like setting up schools, water supply and cleaning sewage lines.”

The PSP leader announced that he will launch an exclusive political campaign in the country and will visit every corner of Pakistan. “I will go to every nook and corner of Pakistan, not for votes: I will tell them to stick to the ideology they follow, but at least give me a chance to tell you about my stance,” he said.

“When you return to your homes, streets tonight, embrace the people you fought. Befriend them and tell them that now no Pakistani will take life of another Pakistani,” Kamal added.



Kamal, who is a Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) dissident, announced to make public his party’s manifesto ‘very soon’. “We want our rights; water and power rights; development rights. There should not be any role in MNA’s or MPA’s in development projects,” he said.

Earlier, on their way to the venue of rally, Pak Sarzameen Party leaders, including Mustafa Kamal, Raza Haroon, Anis Ahmed Advocate and others, made a brief visit to the Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s mausoleum and offered fateha.

The PSP's first-ever political rally came in the backdrop of several political leaders, mainly from the MQM, joined hands with the former Karachi mayor.

On Saturday, Kamal pulled two former members of the MQM’s coordination committee into his fledgling political party.

Talking to the media while flanked by new members Saif Yar Khan and Attaullah Kurd at PSP’s family festival at Bagh-e-Jinnah, Kamal said he has keen to end the reign of target killings in the metropolis and work for peace.

The newly-formed party of Kamal now has a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPA and several MQM leaders who joined the former Karachi mayor after he announced to launch his own political party on March 3.



Upon returning home from self-imposed exile last month, Kamal had launched a blistering attack on MQM supremo Altaf Hussain and challenged the ‘iron grip’ of the Karachi-based party on the city by forming a new party.

Kamal — who won wide support as mayor of Karachi from 2005 to 2010 for his efforts to ease traffic and improve public services — accused Altaf of working for India’s premier spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), destroying two generations of Mohajirs (Urdu-speaking people) and issuing threats under the influence of alcohol.