Sindh LG bill: PTI, MQM and GDA to jointly protest today

KARACHI: Two major opposition parties and an alliance of several other opposition parties and individuals in the Sindh Assembly will jointly organise a protest at the Fawara Chowk today to pressurise the Sindh government to withdraw the disputed local government bill recently passed by the provincial assembly.

Leaders of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) announced the decision after a meeting of their steering committee at a press conference on Friday where they had also hinted that the protest could march towards the Sindh Chief Minister's House.

MQM-P’s MPAs Muhammad Hussain and Javed Hanif, PTI’s MPAs Bilal Ghaffar and GDA’s MPAs Hasnain Mirza, Arif Jatoi, and Sardar Abdul Rahim attended the meeting to discuss effective agitation against the Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Act 2021.

Talking to the media, the opposition leaders said that the three political parties through their joint struggle will force the Pakistan People's Party (PPP)-led Sindh government into withdrawing the ‘anti-people’ bill. They said that all the major parties of the province were in agreement that the Sindh government had snatched the rights of the people through the amended local government law. “We will not remain silent till the withdrawal of the Local Government Act 2013 and its amendments and we will liaise with all other political parties,” MQM-P leader Hussain said.

He said that the PPP's Sindh government has stripped the local bodies of all powers through disputed legislation and the law should therefore be abolished immediately. GDA’s Arbab Rahim said that his party will convene an all-parties conference over the disputed local government bill soon. He also alleged that the police at the behest of the ruling PPP had forcibly removed the opposition parties’ camp in the PS-109 constituency.

PTI’s Ghaffar said that his party’s central leadership will attend the protest today. He said that PTI MQM-P, and GDA together would save the Sindh residents from the PPP’s incompetent and corrupt government.

Meanwhile, a group of 16 women MNAs of the PTI under the leadership of PTI Sindh president and Federal Minister Ali Zaidi arrived in Karachi on Friday from Islamabad to attend Saturday's protest.