Ethnic card only begets violence, Mustafa Kamal warns MQM-P

Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) Chairman Mustafa Kamal has warned the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) against “using the Mohajir card”, saying that the approach in the past 32 years has only begotten violence.

Speaking to the media late Saturday night at a national mushaira titled ‘Hum Zinda Qaum Hain’, Kamal said, “Incompetent people fearing that they may fail in General Election 2018 are clutching on to ethnic politics, hence sowing seeds of hatred among people.”

Kamal said the Mohajir centric political parties should instead adopt a constructive policy and work for the betterment of community and the country.

Kamal’s PSP is among the political parties, including MQM-P and Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi, which primarily depend on the vote bank of the urban populace in Sindh. All these parties are mostly off-shoots of the same political party – the MQM – and have emerged over time in the past 26 years.

Kamal said that the people of Karachi and other urban centres in the province should change the “corrupt and incompetent watchmen” of their mandate for their better tomorrow. He again asserted that PSP was their only hope.

“[The PSP] leadership comprises of remarkable and experienced people who have all left a lavish lifestyle behind just to work for the betterment of this city and country,” he said. “Their past reflects that whenever they got a chance, they worked diligently to serve the people.”

The former mayor’s two-year-old party has 17 MPAs and four MNAs. The Karachi deputy mayor also belongs to it. PSP has never contested elections and with the exception of one, most of the lawmakers and local bodies officials in its wings originally belonged to the MQM-P. They have switched over in the past two years with several joining very recently, swelling the party ranks.

Kamal claimed that PSP has drafted a plan to work out education and health reforms, and to eradicate unemployment and other issues that the MQM-P has failed to address in the past 30 years despite holding the mandate.

Promoting peace

Speaking about the mushaira that PSP had organised in collaboration with the Bazm-e-Saqafat-e-Pakistan with Sindh Governor Mohammad Zubair as the chief guest, Kamal said that his party has been working on the mission to promote fraternal and brotherly relations among people belonging to different communities and sections of society. “God willing we shall certainly succeed in our mission.”

He said the mushaira had helped promote a positive image of Pakistan at the international level and has also showed how peace-loving, cultured and civilised the people of Karachi are. They possess the will and resolve to eradicate all persisting social evils, he added.

Renowned poet Amjad Islam Amjad presided over the event at Nishtar Park. In his address, Zubair appreciated the PSP’s gesture of organising the mushaira, saying that holding such an event was one step in the right direction to show to the world at large the real face of Karachi.

“It is a welcoming sign that the Pak Sarzameen Party alongside doing politics has organised the mushaira in order to bring forth the truth about Karachi in front of the rest of the world. This shows the vision required to serve the nation.”

He said the upcoming general elections will provide an opportunity to the people of the country to elect the leadership of their choice. “People know well who has served the country and who has attempted again and again to impede the process of development.”

The governor said the outgoing federal government is rightly credited with restoring peace in the country in an exemplary way, stabilising the national economy and ending the persistent energy crisis.

“Even the detractors of this government concede that unprecedented works have been completed during the tenure of the present administration,” he said. “The situation of Pakistan would have improved more, had there been no repeated attempts to impede the process.”

Zubair said restoration of peace in Karachi has helped a lot in boosting cultural, social, economic, business and industrial activities in the city. In the past two decades, prospective foreign investors had been reluctant to even visit the metropolis because of the constantly deteriorating law and order situation, he added.

“Now the situation has improved a lot, and the credit for it also goes to the residents, businessmen and industrialists of Karachi who continued with their activities for the good of the national economy against all odds during this period.”

The governor said the present government has been organising road shows in the US, the UK and the Middle East to present to the prospective foreign investors the true face, opportunities and prospects that Karachi offers for growth of businesses and industries. The metropolitan city has now become the preferred choice and destination for the prospective foreign investors visiting this region, he added.