Around 200 ‘key’ MQM activists swear allegiance to rival PSP

Around 200 influential activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) reportedly joined the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP), along with a huge number of their supporters, announced the latter’s chief, former city mayor Mustafa Kamal, on Friday.

Those who joined had served in the MQM on key positions, from sector in-charges to joint sector in-charges, along with hundreds of those who held organizational posts in the party.

Addressing a presser, Kamal welcomed all the 200 people and their associates on joining the PSP on their ‘freewill’, ‘with no pressure from anywhere’.

It was after Kamal’s revelations regarding MQM founder, Altaf Hussain, and his courtiers being engaged with the Indian intelligence agency that the former MQM activists claimed they decided to join the PSP at a presser.

“The reality hit us hard! It shocked us and we felt ashamed to have spent our lives with anti-state elements and were ready to sacrifice our blood for the cause,” one of the new-comers to the PSP observed. The men felt they had finally found the right path and defended having not been under any kind of pressure to take the decision.

The activists were all praise for Kamal’s work carried out in the city during his time as mayor, hoping that even though the situation had changed they would rebuild the city under his leadership again. The PSP chief brushed off claims of MQM activists being forced to join his party by an institute, instead maintained that the men were in fact afraid of Hussain, who he claimed would have harmed their families had they joined the PSP.

He said the people were joining the party only because they believed in the PSP, and sought forgiveness from a life sins; he urged for the society to welcome them.

“People are behind bars and if they want to spend a respectable life, they should be given an opportunity by virtue of God, and must be encouraged. Only punishing those in custody will not resolve things. A person should be given a chance to change himself,” Kamal stated.

Referring to the party’s rally, scheduled to be held at the Tibet Centre on January 29, the former mayor boasted that the event would be a testament to the fact that more and more people would continue to join the PSP, while the upcoming 2018 elections would turn the tables upside down.

Census demand

A day earlier, the PSP called for refugees and emigrants from other countries living in Pakistan to also be counted in in the national population census, scheduled to begin on March 15. 

 Demanding registration of all these people as Pakistani citizens, senior PSP leader  Waseem Aftab said at a press conference, “They have been living in camps for the past four decades, and have the right to be recognised as Pakistani, regardless of what religion was mentioned on the CNIC.”