If you love Mohajirs’ unity, join MQM-Pakistan, says Amir Khan

Refuting the reports of the emergence of a united party representing Mohajirs by the merging of the various factions, central leaders of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) said on Saturday that whoever loves the unity of the Urdu-speaking community should join their party.

Over the past few weeks, rumours have been circulating that another group of the MQM is likely to emerge under former Sindh governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan and Dr Farooq Sattar. Addressing a workers’ convention in Bahadurabad, MQM-P Deputy Convenor Amir Khan said rumours are being spread to harm the unity of the party. “But just like in the past, we will all work together to thwart these conspiracies.”

Khan said the MQM-P is the only voice for the rights of Mohajirs and the oppressed. “Therefore, those who are concerned about the unity of the Mohajir community should join the ranks of the workers of the MQM-P.” Despite the call by the MQM’s London faction for boycotting the 2018 general elections, the MQM-P had bagged 7.5 million votes. “Hard times have passed and now the party has emerged with more power than before,” said the deputy convenor.

MQM-P Convenor Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said the decision taken after August 22 (to form the MQM-P and disassociate it from the London-based leadership) was without any pressure or fear.

“One hundred per cent of the leadership and workers were with this decision at that time, and even now there is no intention to withdraw from this decision,” said Siddiqui. “Anyone who disagrees with the decision can leave. The party has spent five years with new strength and is able to go on for the next 50 years as well.”

He said the MQM-P has conveyed the voice of the citizens of Sindh to all the assemblies and courts, so it should be clear that when the vote does not decide, the road does. He told the workers that in the past they used to write slogans for a new province on the walls and erase it. “Today we are raising the demand for a province loudly in the houses of the parliament,” he said.

“No one else will come here to protect our honour and economic interests. We have to protect them ourselves, and this responsibility has been placed on the shoulders of the workers sitting here in the gathering by history.”

Siddiqui said that apart from the MQM-P’s style of politics, there is no other way of salvation in Pakistan. “Now is the time for a decisive alignment. We will die, we will fight, but we will get our due rights.”

He said injustices are being committed against Mohajirs for the past seven decades. “The Mohajir community was undercounted in the 2017 census, and in all the past censuses as well. But today, because of the MQM-P’s struggle, a correct census will be held next year. An urban university will also be established in Hyderabad due to the MQM-P’s struggle.”