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Thursday March 28, 2024

Nov 8 rally to highlight Karachi’s problems, says PSP chief

By Our Correspondent
October 26, 2020

Pak Sarzameen Party Chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal on Sunday slammed the Pakistan Peoples Party for “pretending to be a revolutionary party when in reality its Sindh government had spent taxpayers' money on hosting the joint rally of ten political parties in Karachi on October 18”.

During its twelve-year rule in the province, the PPP’s “revolution meant the non-availability of vaccines for dog-bite victims”, said Kamal.

He said ten political parties together staged a rally in Karachi and chanted slogans to overthrow the present government just to make themselves rulers but no one among the speakers in the rally bothered to utter about a single issue of Karachi “that was lashed out in the rains a month ago, and instead showed their disrespect to the Urdu language”.

The PSP chief was addressing a press conference at the party’s secretariat on Sunday afternoon in which the party leadership claimed that over 300 activists from various political parties had announced joining the PSP. PSP President Anis Kaim Khani, members of its central executive committee and the national council were present on the occasion.

Kamal said the party would hold a power show on November 8 in Bagh-e-Jinnah, mainly to highlight the problems of Pakistan, particularly Karachi, and would put forward their viable solutions as well.

He said the root of all problems was PPP. “If the PPP leadership doesn’t transfer powers [to the grassroots level], the people of Karachi will hold them accountable because there is no hope for a change from elections.”

He said Karachi did not need charity but its due rights. “The city that earns Rs3,000 billion does not need any package. As the division of Sindh is unacceptable, so is the bifurcation of its capital Karachi is unacceptable.”

He urged the government to transfer all powers of Karachi to its elected mayor and restore the master plan department with all the powers as a separate independent body. Kamal held Prime Minister Imran Khan responsible for “the worst ever inflation, large scale unemployment, closure of businesses, and fast-dwindling economy of the country”.

“Due to the current grim situation, the poor are dying, while their family is indebted for the grave and coffins,” he said. “The country is currently running in auto mode. The government has to appoint the NAB chairman, the election commissioner and the head of the public accounts committee in consultation with the opposition, but the incumbent government has created a constitutional crisis in the country.”

He said it seemed as if the federal government considered it illegitimate to talk to the opposition for the resolution of the country's issues. “However, it became a legitimate activity for the federal government to beg votes from the opposition in the Senate elections.”