Throw away yoke of feudal lords: MQM-P

Party's convener urges people of Sindh to join hands against ruling elite

KARACHI:

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has urged the people of Sindh to join hands with the party to defeat the feudal political setup in the province.

“Throw away the yoke of feudal lords,” he called out to the farmers, labourers, students and intelligentsia of the province.

“The common people should fight for their democratic rights after the landmark judgment of the apex court for empowering the local government system,” MQM-P Convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said, talking to the media in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

The ruling elite demand votes not based on performance but on their divine right to rule, having been born in a particular family.

“I ask the people of Sindh

to lead, and the MQM-P will follow them in the efforts to uproot the feudal politics.” Siddiqui reiterated gratitude to the god for his party’s victory in the apex court.

The apex court on Tuesday ordered the Sindh government to devolve financial, administrative and political powers to the local government in the light of article 140-A. The order has been given on a petition filed by MQM-P’s predecessor, MQM, against the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013.

The court also ordered amending the laws of the development authorities, including Karachi, Hyderabad and Malir, and those pertaining to the Sindh Building Control Authority.

Read More: MQM-P worker died of cardiac arrest, not 'police violence': Sindh minister

Addressing the farmers, labourers, workers, and students of Sindh, Siddiqui said they had been provided with an opportunity by MQM-P to get rid of the yoke of feudal lords. “It’s time to grip the feudal lords from their collars.”

“Today, an ordinary Sindhi can tell the feudal lords that they have greater right to represent the people because they belong to the majority who are the ordinary people.” He hoped that the apex court’s judgment, which pertains to Sindh province, would become a harbinger of change for Punjab, Balochistan, and KPK.

The MQM-P’s leader emphasised that a last conclusive onslaught against the ruling mafia, martial law, feudal democracy and dynastic rule is necessary. He observed that the third tier of the government, which is the LG system, happened to be the essential foundation of democracy. He credited his party for first fighting the case of inserting article 140-A in the constitution and later taking the matter to court for implementation on that article.

“We had sown a seed, and now a plant is growing from that seed. God willing, it will grow to be a big tree providing shade, fruit and comfort to people.” He alleged that in the past, the courts announced conviction sentences on thousands of MQM-P’s workers. He said their little bit of trust in the judiciary rested with those in top courts.

“I thank god that the judiciary kept its reputation in the judgment on this local government case.”

Siddiqui said the feudal elite has no desire to change the fate of ordinary Pakistanis who are better kept deprived so that the elite enjoy the power. “Their system is based on deprivations, unemployment, poverty and hunger.”

He recalled the sacrifices of MQM-P’s workers who, he claimed, faced government atrocities but remained committed to the party. He said the martyrs like Aslam, who died after falling unconscious during the police baton charge outside the chief minister house last week, and Khalilur Rehman Bholu, who was killed in Tando Allahyar, will never be forgotten.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2022.