Sindh

MQM leaders slam Sindh govt performance

Urban areas of the province have been neglected, claims Farooq Sattar

Zubair Ashraf October 17, 2016

PHOTO: INP

KARACHI: A day after the pro-Altaf Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) launched its interim setup in a bid to reclaim the party, the rival Farooq Sattar faction on Sunday showed its control over the party structure.

The first mass meeting of MQM lawmakers, other elected representatives and office bearers took place at KMC cricket ground in PIB Colony. Head of the minus-Altaf faction, Sattar, criticised Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and its Sindh government for having quota system in place and for neglecting urban areas of the province in terms of development, job opportunities, financial and other shares.

Altaf Hussain posters taken down in MQM's Karachi stronghold

“The PPP carried out a rally in the city but did not say anything about the country’s first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan who died on the same day,” he said, adding that no development project had been announced for the metropolis which rendered 60% of the taxes.He, however, pledged that within four years, the party’s deputy mayor of Karachi, Arshad Vohra, will develop a circular railways project for the city. He also said that the party was also launching a 100-day campaign across the province to address and resolve the issues of the people with the use of available resources.

He presented his party’s line of action and demands before the provincial and federal governments and linked the division of Sindh with abolishment of quota system and enforcement of equity in jobs and other utilities. “The division of Sindh is inevitable if the practice of quota system continues.” He mentioned the recently announced 90,000 jobs by Sindh government and demanded that they should be given to people from urban areas to maintain equity.

The MQM is dying because Muhajirs don't need it anymore

During the event, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui asked the government to stop, what he believed, was unjust and unlawful arrests of party workers. “Those held in fake cases must be released without any delay,” he said.

Khawaja Izharul Hasan lashed out at the leadership in London and said that they should not call the leadership in Pakistan traitors and realise that all the steps were taken to save the party and the people it claims to represent.

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