KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain has said that four provinces — North Sindh, South Sindh, Central Sindh and East Sindh — could be created in Sindh without changing its name to allay concerns of Sindhi nationalists.

Addressing a function held in London to celebrate his 61st birthday on Saturday, he said that MQM never wanted any division of Sindh but new provinces were the need of the hour.

Also read: Altaf reiterates call for more provinces

According to an MQM press release, Mr Hussain said he was not in favour of division of Sindh but asked, “If Sindh is one and people have no differences then why does the [rural and urban] quota of 60:40 still exist in the province.”

He said People’s Party, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek supported creation of new provinces in their manifestos.

Mr Hussain said new provinces would be created not only in two or three provinces but in all provinces of the country, including Sindh. Otherwise, he added, no province would be created at all.

He said that name of Sindh province would remain preserved if East Sindh, South Sindh, North Sindh and Central Sindh provinces were created.

He said MQM welcomed PTI chief Imran Khan in Karachi.

Mr Hussain said that some journalists and columnists had tried to create an impression as if the MQM and PTI were fighting over Karachi but they never considered his statements about the PTI and Mr Khan which were the evidence that MQM remained fair to the PTI.

He said that despite the PTI leaderships’ propaganda against him and various accusations, MQM had never reacted to them.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd , 2014