LAHORE: The Jamaat-i-Islami has asked the Muttahida Qaumi Movement to initiate the constitutional process for forming new federating units if the latter was serious in creating new provinces.

“The MQM should take its case to the Sindh Assembly and initiate a campaign there for convincing its allies for the creation of new provinces,” JI Secretary-General Liaquat Baloch said here on Sunday.

He was responding to a question about MQM’s demand for dividing Sindh into northern, southern and central Sindh provinces.

He said as the MQM was an ally of the PPP, the party ruling Sindh, and if it was serious about its demand it should launch a move in the provincial house for the purpose as per the constitutional requirement.

Under the constitutional arrangement, for making any changes in the geographical boundaries of a province, a resolution should be passed by the provincial assembly of the federating unit concerned with a two-third majority.

Responding to another question, Baloch said the parties staging Islamabad sit-in should trust in the guarantee of the parliament and political parties’ leadership instead of seeking the same from the armed forces or any other quarter for resolving the rigging issue.

He said if all the political leadership guaranteed that the prime minister would resign if rigging in elections was proved and the Punjab chief minister would resign if it was proved that the provincial government was directly involved in the Model Town incident then the PTI and PAT leadership should end their sit-in.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2014