‘MQM-P to support any PM candidate who promises to amend constitution as per its demands’

Pakistan and the Muhajir community are passing through a decisive moment in the history.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said this on Saturday while addressing dignitaries of Hyderabad city.

He maintained that the patience of the Muhajir community during the last 10 years of ‘oppression’ had borne fruit and new style of politics had emerged challenging the rotten old feudal democracy of the country.

“Our identity is our destiny,” he said, adding that at the time of Partition, someone in Delhi told Muhajirs that if they opted to go to Pakistan, they would be asked for their identity.

The MQM-P could not fail as today, the whole world recognised their identity, he said.

The party convener recalled that in 1987, the MQM had decided not to go into electoral politics, when it started the journey of identity. He said party leaders at that time also went to Sindhi nationalist leader GM Syed to propose that both sides accepted each other.

In 1987, when an operation against the MQM was going on, the party participated in the local body elections from Karachi and Hyderabad and emerged victorious, Dr Siddiqui said.

He maintained that the MQM gave representation to educated youths from poor settlements as the party believed that public representatives should be ordinary people.

The MQM was not created for few people and the time would tell whether it changed the system or became a part of the system, he said.

He predicted that after the 2024 general elections, no government could be formed without representatives of the urban areas of Sindh.

He said that for the sake of the country's interest, the MQM-P would support any candidate for the prime minister after the general elections of February 8 on condition of amending the constitution as it could neither protect itself nor the public interests in its 50 years.

The MQM-P convener said there had so far been 20 amendments in the constitution and the MQM-P wanted three more changes in it.

The first demand of the MQM-P was that the constitution was amended to give protection to the local governments the same way it provided protection to the federal and provincial governments, he said.

The second amendment demanded by the MQM-P was the district government departments should be listed in the same way as the federal and provincial departments are listed, and the third amendment was to make the NFC award subject to funds for the districts, he said.

Dr Siddiqui said there should be no elections for the provincial and national assemblies until the local governments’ powers were written the constitution.

He said the MQM would remain strong and united in the coming days.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam candidate Humayun Khan Mandokhel who withdrew from PS-63 in favour of the MQM-P candidate Kamran Shafiq Qureshi was also present on the occasion.