KARACHI: The only provincial lawmaker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan from Sukkur, who is said to have voted for Pakistan Peoples Party in the March 3 Senate election, defected to the Pak Sarzameen Party on Monday.

Mohammad Saleem Rajput aka Saleem Bandhani, elected from a Sindh Assembly constituency (PS-1) in Sukkur in the 2013 general election, told a press conference here that he was joining the PSP as per his free will and under no duress.

He was among six MQM-P lawmakers who reportedly voted for the PPP in the Senate elections.

On the day of polling, he had come to the assembly with PPP leader and provincial minister Mukesh Chawla and left after casting his vote without even meeting the MQM-P’s parliamentary party leader.

At the press conference, Mr Bandhani said he was elected twice as a member of the provincial assembly and had also worked on various organisational assignments, but whatever he learnt in his political career was from PSP president Anis Qaimkhani.

He said that excluding the time when Mustafa Kamal was the mayor of Karachi, the MQM had failed to deliver to the people during the past 30 years.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Kamal said that during the past 11 days five MPAs and four MNAs had become part of the PSP. “Those who are still confused I would say it’s time to convert.”

He once again invited the Bahadurabad and PIB groups of the MQM-P to join the PSP for the betterment of not only the Mohajirs but the people of other ethnicities.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2018