MQM-P says provinces, districts can be further divided

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Chairman Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said on Friday he is wondering whether the release of Bushra Bibi, wife of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's founder Imran Khan, "is dheel (leniency) or a deal with the government."

The latest development reflects the plight of politics in Pakistan that the decisions which come from the courts of law appear to us as political, he said while referring to the court's order for release of Bushra Bibi on bail.

He was talking to the media on Thursday night in Hyderabad. "But I am not certain if it's a deal or dheel [leniency]." He reiterated the demand for creation of new provinces, contending that like divisions and districts, provinces are also administrative units.

Siddiqui argued that the fact that local bodies flourished during dictatorships and not in democratic dispensations which have followed each other in regular intervals has existed as a dilemma in Pakistan. He blamed the government for interpreting the constitution as per the personal interests of the ruling parties and not with letter and spirit.

The MQM-P's chief believed that decentralising authority to the local bodies is a case which his party has been fighting for the sake of the entire country's people and not just for the citizens of Karachi and Hyderabad. "A democracy whose benefits don't reach the common people fails to serve its purpose."

He repeated that a feudal democracy by dynasties existed in Pakistan and the same dynasties instead of the common people are represented in the legislatures. "Whenever a so-called democratic government is formed in Pakistan the basic structure of governance through the local bodies is weakened and in contrast the dictators have always buttressed the local government system."

Siddiqui said that they have put a condition before the government for abolishing the quota system in the public sector employment. The quota ought to be replaced by merit. He went on to allege that the officers posted in the educational boards of Sindh appear divided along ethnic lines. "The students in the cities with better literacy rates acquire lower marks in exams in comparison to the cities with lower literacy."