PML-N leader calls invoking Article 149 unacceptable

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) central leader and former Sindh governor Mohammad Zubair on Thursday said the federal government wanted to reverse the 18th Amendment and residents of Sindh would not allow it to invoke the Article 149 in the province.

Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club, Zubair said Prime Minister Imran Khan had been visiting Karachi to invoke the Article 149, which was unacceptable to the residents of Sindh.

The former governor was accompanied by PML-N leaders Nihal Hashmi, Nasiruddin Mehmood and Khurram Bhatti. He said the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), a coalition partner of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, should remember that its mandate in the urban Sindh was stolen.

He said before the PML-N formed the government in 2013, Karachi was considered one of the dangerous cities in the world. “But our party and its government brought peace back to the city without enforcing Article 149,” said the former governor. He added that the PTI wanted to invoke the article just to lift garbage from the city.

Criticising the politicking on garbage in the city, he said various layers of government had only been shifting garbage from one point to other. “They should abandon their childish policy over cleaning the city.”

“PTI’s government is not able to complete its BRT [bus rapid transit] projects. How did it work in Karachi?” he asked. Zubair also criticised the Pakistan Peoples Party for providing an opportunity to the PTI to invoke the Article 149 by not resolving the city’s civic issues properly.

He added that Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar had also maintained that the federal government did not release the funds it promised for the development of the city.

“It was the PML-N’s federal government that started three mega projects – the Lyari Expressway, Green Line project and LNG Terminal – in the city,” he said. Accusing the PTI-led federal government of conspiring to divide Sindh, Zubair said such a policy would have dangerous consequences.