MQM-P’s Arshad Hasan takes oath as deputy mayor

Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar administered the oath of office to the newly-elected deputy mayor, Syed Arshad Hasan, of the Muttahida Qaumi Movemnet-Pakistan (MQM-P) at Baradari on Thursday.

The mayor pledged that Hasan would work collectively for the development and prosperity of the city, adding that the MQM-P had won a mandate and elected the deputy mayor.

Hasan, after the announcement of being elected by the Election Commission of Pakistan, said it was a huge responsibility on him to work for the betterment of the city and to resolve the problems of Karachiites.

He said the local government was a nursery of democracy and the elected members would work hard to develop the city. MQM-P convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqi and deputy convener Kunwar Naveed Jameel were also present on the occasion.

‘Injustice’ decried

“Today, we can proudly say that there are more Pashtuns in Karachi than in Peshawar,” said Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM) convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, who is also federal minister for telecommunication and information technology, on Thursday.

He added that ironically the real inhabitants of this mini-Pakistan were showed fewer. The MQM-P once again stressed the need to invoke Article 144-A of the Constitution of Pakistan, which is part of the 18th amendment and talks about autonomous local governments.

Addressing a press conference, Siddiqui also said that in the sixth national census, the urban population of Sindh wasn’t properly counted. “Karachi’s population is in no way less than 30 million,” he said but it was showed to be little more than 10 million in the census.

Moreover, he said biased delimitations were carried out in Sindh, which adversely affected their representation in the city. Siddiqui along with other members of MQM-P’s coordination committee visited the Bagh-e-Jinnah in respect of his party’s procession to be held there on Saturday against “the deprivation of urban Sindh”.

The Sindh government, he said, had a fake mandate, which indulged loot and plunder for 10 years in the port city.

The only way to safeguard the interest of urban Sindh, he said, was to go to them. “More than provincial autonomy, it is necessary to make the people power,” he said and added that in the name of the 18th amendment, the people of this city had been fooled.

Despite the closure of all its offices as revengeful action against the party, he said that MQM-P was stronger and more disciplined today and still the biggest representative of Sindh’s urban population.

The biggest water project of the city, K-IV, was deliberately being put on the backburners, he added. Meanwhile, MQM leader Amir Khan said that in 2018 general elections, his party’s mandate was stolen. The People of Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas and Karachi, he believed, stood with the MQM. As for the procession, Siddiqui said, the party had prepared an 80 feet long, 40 feet wide and nine feet high stage and installed a 60 feet long and 30 feet wide screen in the Bagh-e-Jinnah.