MQM-P to table bill in NA for new province

MQM-P will not back off from its demand despite PM's rejection, says Amir Khan

HYDERABAD: While the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) has categorically distanced itself from any move intended towards splitting Sindh into two provinces, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) is set to table a bill in this regard in the National Assembly.

The party's Deputy Convener Aamir Khan said while talking to the media in Hyderabad, on Saturday, that the MQM-P will not back off from its demand for a new province even after Prime Minister Imran Khan's recent rejection of the proposition.

"It's up to the PTI to reject or support the bill, but if they [PTI] choose to reject it, they will witness [the consequences] in the next elections," said Khan.



He also reminded the PTI that it won the mandate in the 2018 general elections from Karachi and not from rural Sindh. "We [MQM-P] won't withdraw from the demand of a separate province," he said.

Khan went on to warn that if the PTI government would not fulfill the promises it made to MQM-P, prior to the formation of the coalition government, his party would not wish to remain in the government. He tacitly spoke of stepping out of the alliance if PTI would not honour the two agreements, signed by PTI and MQM-P, before they formed the coalition.

Khan said they [MQM-P] came to know through the media that the prime minister has said there is no need of a new province and that his party will soon be introducing a local government system which will make the creation of a new province irrelevant through devolution. The MQM-P's leader advised Prime Minister Imran Khan to first introduce the said local government system in Punjab, so as to put an end to the demand for a separate province in South Punjab.



"Some friends become annoyed when we talk of a separate province in Sindh. Yes we talk about the separation," he emphasised, adding that if the people of urban Sindh are denied their rights and local government is deprived of its authority, then they will demand a new province.

He challenged the notion pertaining to Sindh's 5,000-year-old history, arguing that Sindh never was a single province, as Khairpur, Hyderabad and Karachi were administered under separate dynasties.