Get rid of MQM to fix Karachi’s problems, says Mustafa Kamal

The problems of Karachi cannot be fixed without getting rid of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in the upcoming elections, because they haven’t delivered anything to the people of this city, except hatred and violence, said Pak Sarzameen Party Chairman Mustafa Kamal on Sunday.

Speaking at the seminar titled ‘Pakistan’s Journey to Progress’ organised by PSP for the city’s business community at a community centre on Sharea Faisal, Kamal questioned on what basis MQM will seek votes again when Karachi citizens are still deprived of even basic necessities, despite the party having ruled the city for 30 years.

“Today, everyone is pitching their own Muhajir narrative, but they forget whatever problems there are [in the city] when they party each night,” he said, criticising the MQM and its offshoots. “Four months are left only [for assemblies to complete their tenure] and this time the final decision should be made.”

Claiming that his tenure as the city mayor was the best, Kamal said that his party was the only option for the voters if they wanted to get their rights. “We are struggling to bring Muhajirs and other ethnicities on a single platform because we don’t want to push this city into fire again,” he said.

Kamal added that Karachi has in the past witnessed killings over political party flags and because of this PSP hoisted the national flag instead so that regardless of their ethnicity, race, culture and religion, citizens could converge under it. “When we demand water, it is for all those living here, not only for Muhajirs,” he said.

Terming Muhajirs the largest stakeholders in the city, he invited them to join his party. “PSP does not want any more enmities between ethnic groups in the city. Its mission is to take the country towards progress rather than infighting,” Kamal said.

Talking about city’s contribution to the economy, the PSP chief said Korangi Industrial Area alone generates Rs400 million in taxes daily for the provincial and federal governments, but unfortunately it was subjected to division on ethnic and sectarian basis so that it could not progress in the right direction.

Reiterating his allegation that MQM was funded by Indian spy agency, RAW, to create unrest in the city, he said that here [in Karachi] everyone, be they from MQM or from other political or religious groups, was targeted. “Altaf Hussain told us that his plan was to destabilise the country that is why we left him,” he claimed.

“PSP has done a lot to make peace sustainable in this city,” Kamal said, referring to the penetration of his mostly Muhajir politicians-led party in neighbourhoods where the population comprises of other ethnicities, like Baloch and Pashtun, more than Muhajirs.

Support base expands

Meanwhile, business community leaders, including Employers’ Federation of Pakistan President Majyd Aziz, Karachi Tajir Ittehad President Atiq Mir and pharmacist Abdul Haseeb Khan, who had been a senator of the MQM previously, threw their weight behind the PSP chairman in their respective speeches.

Aziz said that Kamal’s past spoke of a bright future for the city, while Mir said that the business community will support him whenever he needed them. “Karachi faces discrimination from the Centre and the province. It is necessary that it should be taken care of if you want to enjoy its fruits,” he said.

In his speech, Karachi Deputy Mayor Arshad Vohra, who switched from MQM-P in October last year to PSP, said that the city’s progress has been only on paper for the past three to four decades. He claimed that the funds Karachi Municipal Corporation had were enough to spend Rs20 million every second day on development.