PM assures MQM-P team of allaying concerns

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Wednesday held out an assurance to a delegation of the government’s ally, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) of considering their genuine concerns, including formation of a provincial finance commission to ensuring equitable distribution of resources among the federating units.

The MQM-P delegation, which included Minister for Information Technology Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Minister for Law and Justice Dr Muhammad Farogh Nasim, Amir Khan, Kanwar Naveed, Wasim Akhtar, Aminul Haq and Faisal Sabzwari. Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Khusro Bakhtiar and Special Assistant to PM on Political Affairs Naeemul Haq.

The visitors contended before the prime minister that till the formation of the provincial finance commission, it should be made sure that the major cities, like Karachi and Hyderabad should get their due share with regards to developmental funds.

While referring to several files, they had brought with them, the MQM-P team complained that during the last ten years, on the basis of fake domiciles, citizens in the major cities were denied their right in government jobs. They emphasised that this illegal and unjust process should be thoroughly investigated. During the meeting, both sides also had detailed deliberations on the ongoing developmental projects in Karachi.

It was learnt that the long-standing demand of MQM-P for creation of another province within Sindh did not figure in detail during the meeting.

However, when approached on telephone, MQM-P legislator and member of its Coordination Committee Syed Aminul Haque told The News that the meeting was held in a very cordial manner during which they requested for speeding up the work on development projects in Karachi and under construction university in Hyderabad.

“We also referred to our 120 missing persons, as 40 have already returned to home ever since the PTI formed government along with its allies,” he said while replying to a question. The MQM-P MNA said they also reminded the Prime Minister about handing over of their party offices, which belonged to them legally.

About the recent statement of Prime Minister Imran Khan that the ruling PTI was not in favour of creation of another province in Sindh, he said they made mention of the fact that MQM-P had a principled position on this matter and would continue to raise its voice at every forum, including the Parliament.