MQM-P will sweep 2018 elections, says Faisal Sabzwari

Party opens up new ‘temporary headquarter’ at Bahadurabad

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) will emerge as the major political party in the 2018 general elections with thumping majority, as people of Karachi have bestowed complete trust on the MQM-P and its mandate cannot be stolen, MPA Faisal Sabzwari said at a press conference at a new office of the party inaugurated at Bahadurabad on Saturday afternoon.

The MQM-P threatened to stage sit-in at Sukkur if the by election result of the local body was changed.

“The results are yet to be announced,” he said, accusing the government of tampering the election result.

“The entire Rabita Committee and elected members of the federal, provincial and local bodies will stage a sit-in if the government changed the results.”

He said the MQM-P started its political activity from its new still temporary headquarter at Bahadurabad by addressing first ever press conference.

The party work will be started formally from the new office, which is now considered as the party’s new temporary headquarter,  in a month or two, an information desk member said.

He said the party’s permanent office was the Khursheed Begum Memorial Hall that had been sealed by the law-enforcement agencies following the MQM founder’s controversial speech on August 22, 2016

“The result of the local bodies by-elections in which the MQM-P won all the vacant six seats has further strengthened our vision and courage,” said Sabzwari at the press conference, adding that the results were a slap on the face of those who used to say that the MQM had lost its mandate.

“The security of many of the rival contestants was forfeited in the elections,” he added.  “In the upcoming general elections, people will vote for MQM’s kite and it will deal a blow to influential and dominant factors in the political arena of the country,” he said.

Sabzwari said the MQM-P would soon start its mass contact drive for the upcoming elections. “Despite the fact that many of our activists and followers have been picked up by the law-enforcement agencies, we would deter all kind of state brutalities and would not surrender in front of those who want to eliminate or divide the MQM,” he said.

The MQM-P, he said, had shown its muscles in the local bodies by-elections and with the courage and cooperation of its people, it would regain its past glory very soon.

Regarding missing persons of the MQM, he appealed to the international human rights organisation to raise voice for the recovery of them who were being taken away with no charge and had never been produced before a court of law. “If they have committed any offence, they should be produced before the court,” he demanded.

“MQM’s three incharges, who belong to PIB, Landhi and Gulshan, are still missing and their whereabouts are not known to their families. Shariq Kamal who incharge of the Shah Faisal area has also been missing for the last several months. We have submitted petitions in the court and now his family members are told that he died in the jail as he was suffering from diabetics.”

He said the family members and Kamal’s friends searched for his body in all the hospitals and cold storages of the city but they did not find his body. “It shows that he is still under detention and alive.”

Sabzwari demanded that Kamal should immediately be recovered. “We are a peace loving party and never supported any terrorism.”

He said the PPP was protesting for three missing aides of former president Asif Ali Zardari but its provincial government was silent over the disappearance of hundreds of MQM workers.

Khawaja Izhar Ul Hasan, the Sindh Assembly opposition leader, said the issue of missing persons was more important than the Panama case.

He lashed out at the Jamaate-e-Islami, saying it was only raising its voice over water and electricity crisis for political point scoring keeping in view the upcoming general elections. “The the JI was silent for the past three years?” He asked the JI leadership to “stop its thunder squad in the educational institutions that has created chaos and panic”.