MQM hopes Sindh govt will notify increase in number of UCs

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s (MQM-P) Syed Mustafa Kamal said on Wednesday that the Sindh government had issued a letter to correct the demarcation of constituencies in Karachi but the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) did not accept it.

Led by Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, a delegation of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) met MQM-P Convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui at the Muttahida’s Bahadurabad office.

The meeting was attended by the MQM-P’s senior deputy conveners Dr Farooq Sattar and Kamal, deputy conveners Anees Kaimkhani and Khawaja Izharul Hassan, coordination committee member Faisal Subzwari and other leaders. The PPP delegation comprised Saeed Ghani, Barrister Murtaza Wahab, Sohail Anwar Siyal and Shahzad Memon.

They held a detailed discussion on LG elections and delimitation of constituencies. After the meeting, Kamal said at a joint press briefing that the provincial government had issued a letter to correct the demarcation of constituencies in the city.

However, he pointed out, the ECP did not accept it. If the MQM-Pakistan had contested the LG elections on these fake constituencies, our position would have been proven wrong, he added.

“Our position was that the Sindh government should issue a letter, and despite it being issued, the ECP did not comply with it, so this led to the MQM-P’s boycott of the local body elections,” said Kamal.

“We hope the provincial government will soon issue a letter of the increased UCs. To create new UCs is a prerogative of the provincial government. The constituencies established on the old census are less in proportion to the population as demanded by the MQM-P,” he said.

“But it will increase if the provincial government formally notifies the new UCs. Therefore, the number of UCs should be increased by the same numbers in the next census. The MQM-Pakistan’s call for holding a sit-in is still intact,” he added.

“We intend to be a part of the Sindh government. We have to make every possible effort to solve the problems of the people, so we are thankful to the PPP delegation for coming to Bahadurabad, and hope that the problems of the people will be solved soon.”

Shah said on the occasion that the provincial government had issued a letter on the MQM-P’s demand for increasing the number of UCs in Karachi. He said the PPP and the MQM-P’s negotiations are proceeding in the right direction. “We accept the MQM-P’s stance on the correction of constituencies, and the legal procedure regarding this will be completed soon.”