MQM-P says will take to streets

Convener says coalition parties failed to allay concerns over local govt polls

HYDERABAD:

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan's Convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui on Sunday has said his party has decided to take to streets along with the public to get justice which the parliament, courts and political arenas failed to provide.

At a press conference in Hyderabad on Sunday he asserted that the only option left for MQM-P is the public for whose interests they have been fighting the political war for decades.

He told that they have finalized the protest program and that it will be shared with the people in time. Siddiqui maintained that his party took the issue of wrong delimitations to the Supreme Court, Sindh High Court and the Election Commission of Pakistan. But, he lamented, that their pleas remained unheard.

He alleged that a pre-poll rigging was done in Karachi and Hyderabad in the recent local government elections to give an impression that these cities do not belong to a particular segment of the country's population, an indirect reference to Urdu speaking people. "The people of Karachi and Hyderabad are not electing their mayors but the political trade-off is deciding the mayorships."

He argued that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami contested the LG for the interests of their leaders but the MQM-P boycotted the same polls in the public interest. The MQM-P's convener recalled that the last population census was carried out with a delay of 10 years in 2017.

"The census results have proven wrong many times but no corrective measures were taken," he alleged.

He claimed that if an unprejudiced census is carried out the population of Sindh's urban areas will prove to be higher than the rural population. "But on the basis of flawed census, delimitation and voter lists the elections are organized."

He clarified that his party is not sharing power with the Pakistan Peoples Party rather they were an ally of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's government. "If we leave the alliance the government as well as democracy will not survive." Siddiqui contended that the prevalent system of governance in Pakistan has itself announced its failure.

According to him, MQM-P did not quit the PTI's government because of inflation rather the reason was the non-seriousness of that party's government. He demanded that the way new districts and divisions are created for administrative purposes the new provinces should also be formed for the same causes.

The MQM-P's leader Mutafa Kamal said according to the 2017 census Karachi's population growth rate is 2.4% and that of Lahore is 3%. "Showing Karachi's population at around 15 million was the first step in the pre-poll rigging and the delimitation was the second one."

He said the government's policies are alienating a segment of the population. "People willingly bid farewell to arms. Today if there is peace in the city [Karachi] and if there are no no-go areas, this is because of us," said Kamal. However, he warned that millions of people cannot silently tolerate all the injustices.

"The way PPP's Sindh government is treating the urban areas is similar to the Modi government's actions in Kashmir," he alleged. "Modi is also trying to turn the majority into a minority and he is also stealing mandate."

The former mayor of Karachi demanded that 53 more union committees should be added to the existing 246 UCs.

Deputy convener Waseem Akhtar alleged that the PPP in concert with the ECP played out the drama of LG elections in Sindh. He demanded cancellation of the elections, renewed delimitation in Karachi and Hyderabad. The MQM-P's leader Farooq Sattar said the ECP was supposed to organize the LG polls in 2020 when the local bodies completed the four-year tenure. But, he added, the commission kept delaying until January, 2023, when the polling was fast-tracked.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd, 2023.