MQM-P warns against ‘attempts’ to replace mayor, Sindh opposition leader

Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, the leader of the Bahadurabad faction of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, has warned against alleged attempts to replace the opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly and the Karachi mayor.

“Bids have been made to bring puppet leaderships [on the said positions]. This won’t be good for democratic culture because they [the officials] don’t just represent MQM-P but the masses in Karachi and Sindh as well,” said Siddiqui while addressing a news conference on Thursday.

He was making a thinly-veiled reference to the Pak Sarzameen Party, which since its establishment has attracted five MNAs and 15 MPAs belonging to the MQM-P, not to mention key organisational leaders who arguably ran the party during its days of sway in the city and other urban centres in the province.

Siddiqui claimed that MQM-P has never been accused of corruption and in the past 30 years it has maintained around 85 per cent of the mandate in urban centres of Sindh. “MQM-P is against the stale feudalistic system and dynastical politics,” he said. “That is why those who have been raised in this system since the inception of this country fear the party and do propaganda against it.”

He urged party workers and supporters to not get nervous of the propaganda because “the party doesn’t live in assemblies but in the hearts of its people.” He also expressed hope that his party will succeed in the upcoming general elections.

“If someone wants to bring a change in Karachi then they should do it by winning the hearts of the people. They can never do it by force,” Siddiqui said, referring to allegations that the PSP through some state security institutions was pressurising MQM-P leaders, lawmakers and workers to switch over.

The Bahadurabad faction leader further claimed that circumstances were engineered in a manner in which MQM-P lawmakers could not be with the party and switched. Talking about PSP, he said that people of his party were forced to join it under an “artificial” system. According to Siddiqui, the split that MQM-P is going through is because of its principles which, he claimed, they would never compromise.

Commenting on civic woes, Siddiqui alleged that Pakistan Peoples Party was “holding a grudge” against the urban centres in the province where the MQM-P holds the public’s mandate and because of that cities like Hyderabad and Karachi resembled heaps of garbage.“If the local bodies are given powers according to the Constitution, then they could change the state of these cities,” he said.

He also commented on the “controversial” population census results in which, according to him, Karachi’s population was shown half than what it actually was – a stance maintained by both MQM-P and its rival PSP. “People have been robbed of their rights in the delimitation,” he added.

The Bahadurabad and PIB groups of the MQM-P, spearheaded by Siddiqui and Farooq Sattar respectively, publicly surfaced on February 5 over a disagreement on awarding party tickets for Senate elections. As a result of the split, MQM-P managed to secure only one seat – that for Barrister Farogh Naseem – thus, losing the title of being the fourth largest party in the upper house of the parliament after its strength reduced to five from eight seats. The Islamabad High Court is expected to announce its decision on the leadership struggle between the Bahadurabad and PIB groups today.