“If Hussain doesn’t withdraw from this demand and apologise to the people of Sindh, the reaction will only lapse into hatred and animosity,” Chandio cautioned.
The reaction came after the MQM chief Altaf Hussain renewed his demand for creating new provinces in Pakistan.
“From the day it [MQM] was founded, the disintegration of Sindh has remained its prime objective,” said Qaumi Awami Tehreek president Barrister Ayaz Palijo. “Jinnahpur, Karachi province and Zulfiqarabad are all parts of the same scheme.”
For Palijo, the timing of the demand also indicates a conspiracy to sabotage the all parties’ conference and the measures decided with the relevant stakeholders’ to rein in terrorists in Karachi. He also went on to blame the Western powers for using the MQM to divert their attention from tackling the menaces of terrorism, target killings and extortion.
The MQM chief has asked his party’s workers to campaign by means of rallies and public demonstrations to garner support for the new provinces, he stated. But Palijo recalled that when a similar clamour was raised last year for carving out a Muhajir province from Sindh, the nationalists had responded with ‘love Sindh’ movements and the demand was eventually quelled.
“Anyone wanting to divide Sindh will have to fight a war with the sons of the soil,” warned Sindh Taraqi Pasand chairperson Dr Qadir Magsi.
He said the nationalists have been struggling against the MQM’s designs for the last 25 years. “For years, Sindh has remained a land of peace, where Sufi saints used to be the guiding light.
Sindhis have welcomed people from different ethnicities and regions to come and live in their motherland. But that doesn’t mean we will let anyone tamper with its geographical and historical boundaries.”
Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz, a nationalist party which formed an alliance with the MQM in the 2002 general elections, also condemned the MQM’s demand.
The party’s young chairperson, Sanan Qureshi, said such a move could spark a civil war in Sindh.
“If this happens due to the attitude of Altaf Hussain, he will be responsible for it.”
The chief of his own faction of Jeay Sindh Mahaz, Riaz Chandio, said people of Sindh are saddened by MQM chief’s statement.
“If Hussain doesn’t withdraw from this demand and apologise to the people of Sindh, the reaction will only lapse into hatred and animosity,” Chandio cautioned.
Sindh United Party and other nationalist groups have also condemned the MQM’s demand and sought an apology from Hussain.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 12th, 2013.
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