Karachi has ‘spoken’ in MQM-P’s favour: Siddiqui

Party stages massive public gathering in city claiming it’s sign of victory before polls

KARACHI:

MQM-P Convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui on Sunday said his party had predicted that the citizens of Karachi would announce their verdict on January 21 before the February 8 general elections and they had done so by turning up in large numbers at its massive public gathering in the city.

Speaking at the MQM-P’s rally staged at Karachi’s Bagh-e-Jinnah, Siddiqui expressed his gratitude to the residents of the metropolis for their mammoth participation in the gathering held in connection with the next general polls.

“Those who love Pakistan must also love Karachi. We care about Karachi because we care about Pakistan,” he added.

Siddiqui continued that Karachi’s “true representatives” had arrived today.

He pledged to the people of Karachi that the party would hand over the city to them now that they had proved their loyalty to it by participating in the gathering.

Siddiqui assured the participants of the rally that the MQM-P would keep all the promises it had made with the people of Karachi.

Addressing the gathering, MQM-P leader Mustafa Kamal said the massive number of people at the rally had destroyed the PPP’s billions of rupees of investment in the city.

He said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari claimed that he would become the next premier of the country.

Taking a jibe at Bilawal, Kamal said even his elders were unable to secure any top slot without the MQM-P’s support then how would he pull off this feat.

He told the PPP chairman that he had turned the people of Karachi and the rest of Sindh by neglecting them in his bid to woo Punjab.

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Kamal said the people of Karachi had arrived at this venue and given their decision on the call of his party, which had entered into an alliance with the PML-N.

He continued that the MQM-P, with the help of the massive number of people at the rally, had not only dashed Bilawal’s dream of becoming the premier but would also take away the slot of the Sindh chief minister from the PPP.

Kamal further maintained that it was only the MQM-P, which if voted into power, could guarantee the prosperity of Karachi and the rest of Sindh in addition to including Pakistan in the list of the fastest growing countries in the world.

He expressed the hope that on February 8, the country would vote for the kite – the MQM’s traditional electoral symbol.

Speaking to the rally, MQM-P leader Dr Farooq Sattar maintained that the last 15 years were the worst chapter in the country’s history but the historic public gathering today had broken that chain.

He claimed that during these 15 years, the youth of Karachi were deprived of their jobs and the doors of educational institutions were closed for them. He added that his rally was also giving a message to the rest of Sindh that this biased provincial government would be out of their lives as well.

He continued that the people had rejected all the biased parties including the PPP and given a decision in favour of the MQM-P.

Sattar said when the MQM-P was in power, had anybody heard of gas load shedding in the country.
The MQM-P leader pointed out that Karachi, which paid the most taxes, was also subjected to gas load shedding.

He promised that if the MQM-P came into power on February 8, it would address the problem of gas load shedding similar to how it had dealt with other issues in the past.

Addressing the rally, MQM-P leader Nasreen Jalil said today Sindhis, Balochs, Pashtuns, Punjabis and Mohajirs had all gathered at one place and now nobody could stop the development of Pakistan.

Speaking on the occasion, MQM-P’s Anis Kaimkhani said today’s successful public gathering was a referendum and the people of Karachi had declared the victory of the MQM-P.