The new divide: Altaf demands urban Sindh province

MQM chief requests supporters to email suggested name of proposed entity.

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain on Monday renewed his party’s demand that Karachi and other urban areas of Sindh be made into a separate province and elicited suggestions for names of the proposed province.

“The new province can be called Karachi, urban province, Sindh 1 or Sindh 2 or by any other names,” said Altaf while speaking to the Rabita Committee and members of other departments on Monday.

However he clarified that the demand for the new province was from not the MQM but from the people of urban Sindh. “A consensus has been developed amongst the people of urban areas that a new province be created for them so that their issues can be addressed and resolved. The creation of the province is the only permanent solution.”



The demand for making Karachi and other urban areas, including Hyderabad, into a province, echoed two days ago during Altaf Hussain’s address to his workers at the Jinnah ground while celebrating the party’s victory in the NA-246 by-polls. Last year as well, the party had raised the demand for a separate province – which was criticized by other political parties.

The MQM chief said that for the last 67 years, people of urban Sindh were ignored and treated unjustly by the ruling provincial governments, which has now resulted in a demand for a separate province. He claimed this to be the destiny for these people.

He said that the idea behind formation of a separate province arose in 1973 when the quota system for government jobs of 60 percent for rural Sindh and 40 percent for urban Sindh was set in place.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2015.