All MQM factions trying to carve out a Muhajir state, says Dr Qadir Magsi

STP chairperson chides PPP for expelling Sindhis from Karachi


Our Correspondent March 23, 2018
Dr Qadir Magsi. PHOTO: FILE

HYDERABAD: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) is still united under the leadership of its founder, Altaf Hussain.

Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party (STP) Chairperson Dr Qadir Magsi said this on Thursday while speaking at a ceremony in Hyderabad on the STP's 27th founding day. Those who believe that the MQM has been divided into factions are under the wrong perception, he claimed.

"All factions of the MQM are working to carve out a Muhajir state within Sindh," Dr Magsi said. Recalling the ethnic strife in late 1980s in Sindh, he said the STP was founded to challenge the MQM's terrorism and protect Sindhis. "MQM is General Ziaul Haq's creature which was formed to expel Sindhis from the urban centres of Sindh."

The STP chairperson blamed the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-led Sindh government for expelling Sindhis from Karachi. He claimed that around four million people from rural Sindh had settled in Karachi in addition to the city's native Sindhi population which was also in millions.

"If the PPP had not evicted a large number of flood affected people [who had settled in Karachi following the 2010 and 2011 floods], the population of Sindhis in Karachi would have been higher," Dr Magsi said. He went on to allege that the PPP expelled Sindhis from Karachi in order to appease the MQM and Awami National Party.

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He also claimed that demography of Hyderabad had changed and if transparent local government elections were held, the MQM would not be able to elect its mayor for the city.

Dr Magsi took credit for introducing modern nationalism which sought to retain Pakistani identity while striving for Sindh's autonomy and rights. "Two of the martyrs of our party were from Urdu speaking community," he said, adding that around 2,000 workers of the STP were Urdu speaking people. The people of other ethnicities like Punjabis and Pakhtuns were also a part of the STP, he said.

He also criticised Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf Chairperson Imran Khan for lacking political wisdom and for taking 'political orphans' in his party. "We don't need Imran in Sindh because he doesn't understand the sensitive matters of language, culture and history [of Sindh]," the STP chairperson said, adding that Imran's politics revolved around the status quo.

He urged the educated and working class of Sindh to defeat the PPP's feudal lords through their votes. Dr Magsi warned that the feudal class would never allow the common people to reap the fruits of democracy.

The STP chairperson also justified his parting of ways with towering nationalist leader GM Syed and forming a separate party in 1991. STP leaders Fateh Samejo, Abdul Hameed Memon and others also spoke at the ceremony.

COMMENTS (1)

pak47 | 6 years ago | Reply Sindh needs more leaders like him.
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