HYDERABAD: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan has demanded an increase in the number of assembly seats for urban areas on the basis of rise in population in the ever-growing cities of Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur.

Addressing the ‘Huqooq rally’ here on Sunday, MQM-P chief Dr Farooq Sattar stressed that the census should truly translate this increase in population into numbers.

Accompanied by Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar, Khawaja Izharul Hassan, Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Kanwar Naveed Jamil and other leaders of the party, Dr Sattar said the MQM was preparing to file a petition in court against discrimination in quota in ‘jobs and admissions’ for urban areas. He urged the Urdu-speaking community to forge unity in their ranks and not to get worried over civic problems, which he said would be solved the moment they got united.

Muttahida was created on July 26, 1997, but it was ‘saved’ on Aug 23, 2016. “If London behaves irresponsibly, intentionally or mistakenly, we will have to understand its agenda of division because we have to avoid divisions,” he said.

All business centres and shops along the roads on the rally’s route remained open. Activists of the MQM-London, who apparently joined the rally at different places, kept raising pro-Altaf slogans, but no party leader or worker reacted to their sloganeering.

Dr Sattar said that when the MQM-P staged a rally in Karachi it did not describe it as a ‘million march’, although people’s turnout was well over 100,000. “Since Hyderabad is a small city the count is in thousands,” he said in a lighter vein.

He said that as and when the MQM-P decided to stage a million march, it would be the real one with the true headcount. Those who claimed to stage a ‘million march’ could barely save their ‘honour’ by a preplanned teargas shelling’ thanks to ‘muk-muka’ politics, he said.

“We … are struggling for the right of the oppressed and the downtrodden Sindhis, Siriakis, Pashtuns, Punjabis, Hazarawals and Baloch,” he said.

He said that those who were talking about divisions (in Mohajir leadership) would themselves face split while MQM-P’s vote bank would remain intact. “We are not like Bombay Bakery’s cakes or Haji’s Rabri that can be doled out by people,” he said, invoking the names of the city’s famous sweetmeat products which were household names in Hyderabad.

He said that unity of the Urdu-speaking community afforded a sure solution to the nagging issues. True figures must emerge of the community’s population in Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur which were growing at a faster pace, he said.

“Our seats [constituencies] will have to be increased and Sindh chief minister’s office will have to be given to us. We have moved judiciary on census issue like we did on the question of Article 140-A that deals with political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority of a provincial government,” said Dr Sattar.

On the pretext of quota system, he said, not only Mohajirs were being exploited but the oppressed Sindhis too had fallen prey to it, while the jobs were being given only to powerful feudal lords.

He warned the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company to desist from issuing inflated bills to consumers and end unannounced and prolonged outages else people would react.

Dr Sattar hinted at withholding payment of taxes to the government if it failed to resolve people’s basic issues. Leased katchi abadis were being demolished but the MQM-P would not let it happen. “MQM-P may launch a ‘beggary mission’ for a university in Hyderabad on the pattern of historic struggle for the establishment of Aligarh University,” he said.

He said the MQM-P would incorporate in its charter of demands the call for the formation of a commission and institution of a fresh investigation into the Sept 30, 1988, Hyderabad carnage case since all accused had been exonerated by a trial court and appeals against their acquittal had been dismissed. The MQM-P would boycott the Sindh Assembly session in protest against the acquittal, he said.

Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said that Sindh government’s resources were handled by Asif Ali Zardari. The Pakistan Peoples Party had reduced Larkana to another Moenjodaro, despite spending Rs90 billion on the city, while Hyderabad was given hardly a few millions. If urban centres, which contributed 97 to 98 per cent taxes to the national kitty, stopped paying taxes the government would have to take their notice, he said.

Hyderabad mayor Tayyab Hussain, MQM coordination committee member Kamran, MQM zonal organiser Rashid Khilji and the party’s women wing in-charge Shamim Akhtar also spoke to the rally participants.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2017