PSP protest enters ninth day as talks with PPP bear little fruit

Waqar Mehdi says 10 of PSP’s 16 demands acceptable; Mustafa Kamal
says no deal until all points agreed upon

Following a meeting between a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) delegation and the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) leadership late on Wednesday night, a representative of the ruling party said they were willing to implement 10 of the PSP's 16 demands and work on new legislations to that effect.

PSP chief Syed Mustafa Kamal, however, has refused to end his sit-in, which entered its ninth day on Thursday, as he reiterated that the protest for the city’s rights would not be called off until all 16 demands were fulfilled by the provincial government. 

The visiting delegation was headed by transport minister Syed Nasir Shah and included PPP Karachi Secretary General Waqar Mehdi.

Talking to The News, Mehdi said it was their second visit to the protesting party’s camp erected outside the Karachi Press Club (KPC). 

Mehdi said the PSP chief wanted the government to immediately fulfil all of his demands, but he was told that some of his demands, including giving some civic bodies under the control of the Karachi mayor, could only be fulfilled through a legislative process. 

While the PPP is trying to convince the PSP chief to end his protest, Kamal has vowed to push his movement to the next level. 

Speaking to The News on Tuesday, he said: “We have conveyed our message to the masses. People are coming in large numbers at our camp to express their solidarity with our cause,” Kamal said.

“We have now decided to move forward since this sit-in has already been successful in helping people realise their rights and making them stand for ensuring civil liberties,” he said.

To a query, he said the party did not have any plan to stage a sit-in outside the Chief Minister House.” Our mission is to move far beyond the walls of the CM House,” he said with a smile.

Talking about his working relationship with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, Kamal said he was in constant touch with MQM-P chief Dr Farooq Sattar. “Our doors are open for everybody,” he said.

Kamal said the level of the party’s movement would go high with everyday passing. “The struggle will go on until we pull off our assignment.”

PSP Vice President Dr Sagheer Ahmed reiterated that the sit-in would continue till the government fulfilled their demands.

A day earlier, the party vowed to continue the protest until all 16 of its demands were met by the government.

The party's leaders also warned that all negotiations would be in vain if the government failed to actually take practical measures to address the city's issues.

Addressing protesters at the KPC on Monday, PSP President Anis Qaimkhani said the party was looking forward to talks but would take to streets if the negotiations failed.

Earlier on Friday, another lawmaker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Iritiza Khalil Farooqui, announced his inclusion in the PSP as he joined the party’s sit-in staged outside the KPC.

Farooqui, is the seventh MQM lawmaker to join the Mustafa Kamal-led party, was welcomed by the PSP central leadership on the second day of their protest against the Sindh government for keeping the city ‘deprived of its due rights’.