MQM-P flays PPP for ‘ignoring’ Karachi, Hyderabad in budget

Criticising the Pakistan Peoples Party’s Sindh government for “ignoring” the province’s two major urban megacities in the provincial budget, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said on Friday Karachi and Hyderabad had been facing this “economic terrorism” for at least 10 years despite contributing most to the economy of the country.

In a press conference held at the party’s temporary headquarters in Bahadurabad, Siddiqui, who is a federal minister, discussed the provincial budget for the fiscal year 2019-20 and said his party totally rejected the budget that was not only “anti-people” but also “biased and anti-urban centers”.

“The PPP’s biased government has been ignoring the province’s urban centers, particularly Karachi and Hyderabad, in development projects and funds because of its biases,” he said.

Siddiqui claimed that Karachi gave 95 percent of revenue but in return it only got a mere 10 percent. He said Karachi and Hyderabad only saw development in the MQM-P’s government, whereas the PPP’s “racist government” had destroyed the infrastructure of the two cities.

“The PPP through its prejudiced acts has already divided the province.” The MQM-P leader said his party had rejected “this anti-people budget” presented by the Sindh government. The MQM-P, he added, tried its best to serve Karachi whenever it had authority and power but all its efforts were sabotaged by the PPP when it came to power in the province, he said.

Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar said that funds allocated to the Karachi Municipal Corporation by the provincial government could only pay the salaries of the workers of the municipality. “Every year the salaries of municipality workers have been increased, but the KMC’s funds are not increased,” he said.

Citing the recent remarks of a judge of the apex court, Akhtar said that now the judiciary was also saying that Sindh was the country’s most corrupt province.

Khawaja Izharul Hassan, another MQM-P leader, said that during Pervez Musharraf’s regime, funds were given to both Karachi and Larkana. “Our party spent the funds on the city’s development,” he said.