KARACHI: Accusing Mayor Wasim Akhtar of destroying livelihoods of Karachi, disgruntled Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan leader Dr Farooq Sattar on Saturday demanded his immediate resignation.

Dr Sattar made this demand while speaking at a protest demonstration held on M.A. Jinnah Road near the head office of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation against the ongoing destruction of shops and houses in the name of an anti-encroachment drive.

The MQM-P’s Bahadurabad group has expelled Dr Sattar for violating party discipline and the latter is now heading his own faction — the Organisation Restoration Committee of the MQM-P, better known as the PIB group — and openly criticising his opponents.

He alleged that the mayor warned city traders not to participate in Saturday’s protest, but despite all odds “the business community came in large numbers”.

In a thinly veiled reference to his former colleagues in the coordination committee, he said that first they destroyed shops and businesses and now were “shedding crocodile tears”.

He said that besides the KMC, the Sindh Building Control Authority, cantonment boards and the provincial government were making hundreds of thousands of people shelterless.

Dr Sattar said that he also suspected the role of Governor Imran Ismail as he appeared to be “complicit” in the exercise.

He demanded that the anti-encroachment drive be stopped forthwith and the affected shopkeepers be given alternative places.

He also appealed to Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar to visit Karachi and look into the situation.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2018