In protest: JSQM to stage sit-ins outside MQM office from today
Anger sparked among nationalists as demands were raised for carving a Muhajir province within Sindh.
The Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) has decided to stage sit-ins in front of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) offices all across Upper Sindh from Sunday (today) to condemn the MQM demand for a new province for Muhajirs.
Sit-ins will be staged in Ghotki, Kandhkot, Shikarpur and Larkana from October 26 to October 29. Leaders and workers of the JSQM will gather outside the MQM office situated near Ghotki Bypass on Sunday.
MQM's Ghotki joint zonal in-charge Wazir Ghoto told The Express Tribune that the office-bearers of the MQM have gone to Karachi, where a meeting has been scheduled to discuss this situation.
JSQM's Ghotki district president Nasrullah Kaladi said that the protests will be peaceful. He added that the purpose of the protests is to make the local MQM leadership to ask their central leaders to withdraw their demands for a Muhajir province.
In Ghotki, the district police have already been put on high alert as part of Ashura preparations. The district administration and the police are aware of the sensitivity of the matter and arrangements have been made to avert any untoward incident.
JSQM senior vice-chairperson Dr Niaz Kalani told The Express Tribune that they are not against the Urdu-speaking community. "Rather, we are against the MQM leadership, which is issuing statements that call for the division of Sindh," he said. He said that sit-ins will be held in front of the MQM offices in Ghotki on October 26, in Kandhkot on October 27, in Shikarpur on October 28 and in Larkana on October 29. He added that if the MQM leadership failed to withdraw its statements, then the JSQM will stage a protest outside MQM's Karachi headquarters, Nine Zero.
Meanwhile, MQM Rabita committee member Aminul Haque said that every party has the democratic right for peaceful protests. He said that the demands for a new province have come because of a sense of deprivation prevailing among people.
"We demand new administrative units in the country, including Sindh, to ease people's problems," he said, adding that the urban areas of Sindh have been deprived of development as the government has been discriminating against the Urdu-speaking community in Karachi and other districts.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 26th, 2014.
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