MQM-P warns against 'hijacking' local polls

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has strongly opposed the Sindh government's expected move to extend the terms of mayors, deputy mayors, chairmen and vice-chairmen after the expiry of their elected tenure, calling it a "cunning conspiracy" to hijack the upcoming local government elections.

In a statement issued from Bahadurabad, MQM-P members of the Sindh Assembly alleged that any such move would be mala fide and amount to an open violation of the Constitution and law. The lawmakers warned the Sindh government against attempting to keep urban Sindh under what they described as political domination, saying MQM-P would resist the move "like a wall of steel" and would not allow the province's urban areas to be treated as the fiefdom of any feudal.

They accused the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of manipulating the law to prolong what they called its "illegal control" and said the party's style of governance had widened political and social divisions in the province. MQM-P lawmakers also criticised the PPP's claims of championing democracy, alleging that the government was undermining democratic principles through the proposed extension.