MQM-P calls for new provinces, national dialogue

Amid growing calls for new provinces for better governance, MQM-P Chairman Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui on Sunday also proposed a broad-based national dialogue and the creation of new administrative units to "pull the country out of its political crisis and economic morass.

Addressing a press conference at the party's Bahadurabad headquarters alongside senior leaders Syed Mustafa Kamal, Dr Farooq Sattar, Anees Ahmed Qaimkhani and Furqan Atib, the MQM-P chairman said his party would contact all political parties to initiate a comprehensive national dialogue.

Dr Siddiqui, who is also the federal education minister, said the MQM-P would once again approach the Supreme Court for implementation of Article 140-A "in its true spirit" to ensure empowered local governments.

Article 140A of the 1973 Constitution requires each province to establish a local government system by law. It mandates the transfer of political, administrative, and financial power to elected local representatives and assigns local body elections to the Election Commission of Pakistan

Dr Siddiqui criticised the Pakistan Peoples Party for what he described as a "double standard", saying the party had supported resolutions on Article 140-A in Punjab while allegedly curtailing local government powers in Sindh.

He said Pakistan's population had increased from around 25 to 30 million at the time of independence to more than 250 million, yet the country had not seen the creation of new provinces in proportion to population growth.

The MQM-P maintained that his party had repeatedly proposed practical measures to address the country's crises and had brought middle-class youth into parliament, something he claimed had been viewed as a "crime" by the ruling elite. Speaking on the occasion, senior MQM-P Mustafa Kamal, who is also Federal Health Minister, said the demand for new administrative units was not directed against any ethnicity or the people of Sindh.

"The creation of new administrative units is in the interest of the people of Sindh," he said, alleging that feudal and hereditary political structures had pushed the province towards ruination.

Kamal was referring to the ruling PPP which has strongly rejected the demand for a new administrative unit in Sindh, saying it would not allow the division of the province.

Kamal claimed that despite the federal government allocating Rs8,884 billion to the provinces and Rs22 trillion being spent in Sindh, Karachi had been reduced to one of the world's worst cities.

The situation in rural Sindh, he added, was even worse, with women still forced to travel several kilometres to fetch drinking water.