PPP thinks MQM-Pakistan eyeing Rs25bn Karachi package

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) believes that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) wishes to get a share in the recently announced 25-billion-rupee Karachi development package by organising a multi-party conference.

After five mainstream political parties had boycotted the scheduled meeting on Tuesday, the Dr Farooq Sattar-led MQM-P called off the event and turned it into a news conference.

Sattar then lashed out at the PPP, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the Awami National Party, the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid for “initially agreeing to show up at the conference and then announcing their boycott through the media”.

PPP Sindh President Nisar Khuhro responded through a news conference on Wednesday: “How could we have become part of the conference if Sattar is lobbying for the Karachi package?”

Khuhro then accused the MQM-P of postponing the event on the orders of the party’s “London leadership”. He also claimed that Sattar had wrongfully stated that the PPP had accepted the MQM-P’s invitation to the conference.

He said Sindh Assembly opposition leader Khawaja Izharul Hassan of the MQM-P had sought time from him for a meeting regarding the multi-party conference, adding that an MQM-P delegation had only verbally informed him about the event without giving a proper invitation.

The PPP leader said his party had not given any sort of assurance to the MQM-P about participating in the conference, as the MQM-P delegation was already informed that a decision would be made only after consulting with the PPP leadership. “We didn’t participate in the event as per the decision of our leadership.”

In response to a query, Khuhro said the PPP had no objection if different factions of the MQM were making attempts at merging. “Sattar should clarify who is pressurising him into uniting the different factions.”

He said the PPP had always sided with democracy, as it had always stood against conspiracies against democracy instead of becoming part of such schemes. “We performed our role to save the system rather than to rescue an individual.

The PPP supported democracy at a time when [PTI Chairman] Imran Khan climbed atop a container and talked about whistle-blowing.” Khuhro said Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif himself had gone against the Charter of Democracy by forming the All Parties Democratic Movement in the past.

Replying to another question, he said the institutions under the control of the provincial government had actively worked to drain the rainwater accumulated after the recent spell of monsoon rains in Karachi.