Muhajir province: ‘MQM’s demand might spark civil war’

JSQM workers gather outside MQM office in Shikarpur

SUKKUR: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement's (MQM) demand for a Muhajir province might result in a civil war within the province, warned Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) vice-chairperson Dr Niaz Kalani on Tuesday.

He was addressing a protest demonstration organised in front of the MQM office near Old Power House, Shikarpur. The JSQM is staging a series of sit-ins outside MQM offices in different district headquarters of upper Sindh to condemn the demand for carving a separate province for the Urdu-speaking community.

After staging sit-ins in Ghotki and Kandhkot on Sunday and Monday, respectively, hundreds of JSQM workers led by Kalani, Amjad Mahesar, Kehar Ansari and Sagar Hanif Burdi staged a demonstration in front of Shikarpur Press Club. Later, the protesters marched through the main thoroughfares of the city to the MQM office near Old Power House. They shouted slogans against the demand for a Muhajir province.

Addressing the protesters, the leaders vowed that every inch of their motherland will be safeguarded till the last Sindhi lives. Criticising the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and MQM, they said that the MQM is demanding separate province to vent out its frustration against the PPP.

Kalani termed the demand about separate province as a joint brainchild of the PPP and MQM. He alleged that the PPP and MQM have conspired on this to maintain their vote-banks.

"This demand of the MQM might take the province towards a civil war and both MQM and PPP will be responsible for that," he said.

He appealed to the MQM leadership to sort its differences out with the PPP in a political manner without using Sindh as a scapegoat. He further said that the MQM has become habitual of putting forward the demand for a separate province whenever they face a problem with the PPP. "This attitude is not right and they should act responsibly," he said. "Those talking about a separate province are trying to cut the branch on which they are sitting."

Published in The Express Tribune, October 29^th, 2014.