MQM-P to hold ‘Karachi March’ for rights
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) will organise a 'Karachi March' on September 24 for the rights of urban areas of Sindh, said MQM-P convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui on Sunday, adding that it was the start of their struggle for rights.
Elaborating further on the protest, he clarified that the march was not just for urban Sindh but for all those places in the province where citizens' rights were being violated, adding that demanding a separate province was a constitutional right for citizens.
Dr Siddiqui said that there was a long history of injustice and violation of the rights of urban Sindh's people. He claimed that urban Sindh should receive a 40 per cent share under the quota system but not even 4 per cent of its due share had been provided to it in the past 50 years.
"The Pakistan to which we [Muhajirs] migrated was the Pakistan made by the Quaid-e-Azam and we were authoritative and intentional Pakistanis instead of accidental Pakistanis," said Siddiqui.
He maintained that they had migrated to the theoretical, economic and industrial capital of the country but when the governance of West Pakistan was handed over to a person with 45 per cent votes in the 1970s, the quota system was enforced and conspiracies against the descendants of the founders of Pakistan were initiated. He further stated that major industries and educational institutions were destroyed by nationalising them.
The MQM-P leader alleged that 90 per cent of government jobs in urban Sindh were awarded based on fake domiciles and now one of the world's biggest metropolises had turned into a village.
"The height of racism and bias is proven by the fact that the Sindh government could not find a single Urdu-speaking administrator in the province, including Karachi, Hyderabad and Nawabshah," he added.
Moreover, he extended complete support for other marches organised for the rights of citizens of Karachi and other urban parts of Sindh. "The decisions will be made on the roads if not in the courts and assemblies," he asserted.
MQM-P will also hold protests in Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas on October 4 and 11, respectively, he shared.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 21st, 2020