KARACHI, Oct 1: Alleging that the nationalist parties of Sindh were working on the ‘payroll of establishment’, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement on Monday appealed to the people of Sindh to remain peaceful and united to defeat the conspiracies of the so-called nationalist forces.The MQM coordination committee said that the representative political parties enjoying support of millions of people of Sindh prepared a local government system in order to transfer power to the grassroots level, but the so-called nationalists were ruining the peace in Sindh by staging violent protests and strikes.

It said that the people of Sindh knew it well that the so-called nationalists worked on the payroll of the establishment and they had always opposed any action that could benefit the people of Sindh.

The coordination committee said that the nationalist forces had not even been able to get a few hundred votes in elections or get a councillor elected.

It said that the nationalist elements were once again conspiring to ruin peace on the pretext of opposing the LG system at the behest of anti-Sindh forces.

The MQM said that these nationalist forces were trying to create a division among permanent residents of Sindh and to raise a wall of hatred at the behest of certain government agencies.

The committee appealed to the people of Sindh to frustrate nefarious designs of the nationalist forces by remaining peaceful and united Meanwhile, MQM chief Altaf Hussain congratulated the people of Pakistan in general and of Sindh in particular on the passage of the Sindh People’s Local Government Bill 2012 with a majority vote.

In a party statement, Mr Hussain praised President Asif Zardari, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and elected representatives of the MQM and the Pakistan People’s Party for tireless efforts they had put in to prepare the local government bill and to get it passed from the Sindh Assembly.

He said that the LG system was the real essence of democracy and its opponents were against democracy. “They did not want to devolve power to the lowest level in order to maintain their fierce grip on power for exploiting people.”

Mr Hussain said that it was the need of the hour to use the local government system in the larger interest of the public and for determining new ways of making progress.