People of urban centres of Sindh never voted for PPP, says Haque

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader and federal minister for information technology Syed Aminul Haque has said that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has been striving hard to dominate the urban centres of Sindh for the past three decades but the people of cities historically rejected the PPP through the power of vote.

“Some two years ago, the provincial government in a sudden move divided Karachi’s District West by carving out the Keamari district as a new administrative unit. The PPP’s motive of forming District Keamari was to dominate it and make its own government in the district council,” said Haque while addressing a press conference at an MQM-P office in Orangi Town.

He said that instead of ensuring that population in each union council (UC) of Orangi Town was between 45,000 and 75,000, the UC-8 had a population of 95,000 while UC-7 had 87,000 people. However, when the Sindh government carried out the delimitation in Manghopir Town, UCs comprised 2,600 people. The delimitation of some UCs showed that they had 5,000 to 6,000 residents.

The MQM-P leader remarked that the Constitution of Pakistan and Local Government Act called for delivering services at the doorstep, but unfortunately the PPP-led provincial government had taken a biased and malicious decision during the formation of the UCs across Karachi.

“I ask the provincial government, especially Bilawal Bhutto, to fulfil their promises and pave the way for the local governments to work with full powers.”

In response to a question, he said that Bilawal had assured that the agreement reached between the PPP and MQM-P would be implemented as soon as possible. In case the pact was not enforced, the MQM-P would decide its course of action after the by-poll in NA-245.

He said that the MQM-P condemned violence against political workers, but all the major political parties of Pakistan never condemned inhumane violence and extrajudicial killings of MQM workers throughout the history.

Haque added that corrupt officials and officers of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board had been working with the tanker mafia to sell water, and they had blocked the water supply to District West. He lamented that there was even water shortage in the industrial area of the district which generated a large revenue. If the water supply was not restored, the people would hold a protest in front of the Chief Minister’s House, he said.

PSP flays MQM-P

The leaders of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) cannot show any achievement in the 40-year history of their party except for the performance of Mustafa Kamal when was the nazim of Karachi.

Kamal, the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) chairman said this on Friday while addressing the participants of a rally in connection with the by-election in NA-245 to be held today (Sunday).

He said that candidates of the MQM-P and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were elected from the NA-245 constituency in District East of Karachi, but the fate of the constituency was in front of everyone. Currently, all the political parties, including the MQM-P and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) were in power, but the city looked like ancient ruins, he added.

Referring to former Sindh governor Ishratul Ibad, Kamal said the most powerful governor of Sindh belonged to the MQM who remained in office for 14 years. Similarly, he said the portfolio of the provincial minister for local government was with the MQM-P for 10 years, the ports and shipping ministry for 10 years, the excise and taxation ministry for five years, the portfolio of health for 10 years, the provincial ministry of interior for five years, the ministry of planning and development for five years, youth ministry for five years, but the party could not brag about anything except for his performance as the city’s nazim, he remarked.

He said the PTI had already decided that they would resign from NA-245 after winning the seat.

Kamal claimed that there was no better candidate than PSP’s Advocate Syed Hafeezuddin in the NA-245 by-election. He added that if the PSP had deemed any candidate better than its, it we would have withdrawn Hafeezuddin in favour of that candidate.

Commenting on the withdrawal of the PPP candidate in favour of the MQM-P, the PSP chief said it suggested that the MQM-P had been giving some kind of service to the PPP.

Kamal said the people of NA-245 should vote for the PSP’s candidate or else they would be responsible for further destruction of their constituency.

He said the PSP had no money to run election campaigns because the party had not made money from Haram (prohibited) sources.

The parties who had earned money from prohibited sources had fixed two to three party flags along with colored banners on each pole of the constituency, Kamal remarked. “We believe in serving the people. The city was built by our hands before and we will build it again. Our past is the guarantee of a better tomorrow.”

He demanded that the army be deployed on the day of the by-poll and the local government elections be also conducted under their supervision. PSP President Anis Kaimkhani, Hafeezuddin and other central leaders of the party were also present in the rally that started from the main office of the PSP and passed through different areas before it ended in Lines Area.