Muttahida lawmakers unite to challenge ‘bad governance’ of PPP

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) parliamentary party in the Sindh Assembly has decided to set their differences aside to challenge the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) allegedly undemocratic rule and bad governance in the province.

A total of 18 opposition lawmakers belonging to the MQM-Pakistan’s PIB Colony and Bahadurabad factions met at the building of the provincial legislature on Thursday. After their meeting, PA opposition leader Khawaja Izharul Hassan and parliamentary party leader of the MQM Syed Sardar Ahmed told the media that the provincial legislators had met after a long time in order to discuss Sindh’s political situation.

They said the meeting mulled over the rule of the PPP-led Sindh government and concluded that the party was ruling in the province in an “absolutely undemocratic” manner because of which “financial corruption and irregularities are rife” in government affairs.

The MQM leaders said the provincial government was bent on exhausting the budget of the current fiscal year within the remaining months of its constitutional term, adding that development funds reserved for the opposition lawmakers were being unduly spent by the legislators of the ruling party.

They accused the PPP of discriminating between the voters of Karachi and those of Larkana, adding that the privileges of the voters in Karachi were being breached as development funds reserved for their public representatives were being spent elsewhere in the province.

  KU harassment case

The MQM’s meeting also discussed the recent accusation of a female student of the University of Karachi claiming that she was harassed by a male teacher. The MQM’s parliamentary party constituted a two-member committee comprising its lawmakers to inquire into the incident.

The committee will meet the vice-chancellor of the university to compile its report on the alleged incident. The opposition party’s meeting also talked about the recent amendments to the laws governing public universities across the province.

  The delimitation issue

On the recently proposed delimitation of electoral constituencies by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in view of the latest population census, the MQM’s parliamentary party decided to submit its objections to the ECP on the planned delimitation in urban Sindh.

The meeting also discussed the proceedings of the Supreme Court-appointed judicial commission that has been investigating into the water and sanitation issues of the province, as well as the issue of lack of funds for developing the urban parts of the province and running its municipal agencies.  

Show-cause notices

In response to a question, PA opposition leader Hassan said show-cause notices had been issued to MQM lawmakers who had voted in favour of the PPP’s candidates in the recent Senate elections in the province.

He said the issue of voting against their own party in the recent polls of the parliament’s upper house was not confined to the MQM, adding that legislators of other political parties had also adopted the same course.

Regarding the MQM’s claim that the PPP-led Sindh government was engaging in bad governance, Hassan said the option of public and street protest could be exercised by his party to highlight the issue.