KARACHI: Accusing the Pakistan Peoples Party’s provincial government of doing injustices to people living in urban areas of the province, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan on Sunday questioned the impartiality of the Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) saying it had recently appointed over 30 assistant commissioners and none of them belonging to urban Sindh.

Speaking at a press conference, senior MQM-P leaders Kanwar Naveed Jameel and Faisal Subzwari said that the job quota of urban Sindh stood at 40 per cent through legislation but the SPSC had not even given a mere three per cent jobs to Urdu-speaking people.

“A biased quota system has been imposed on urban Sindh and the PPP government is exploiting that quota too,” said Mr Subzwari.

Says people may demand a separate province if discrimination not stopped

He expressed surprise that how “three children of a serving official of the SPSC” got appointed through the commission.

The MQM-P leader was questioning the appointment of two daughters and a son of SPSC member Sain Dad Solangi, who had got Grade-17 jobs of planning officer, assistant director and assistant commissioner.

“We are going to plead the case of injustices with urban Sindh in courts,” he said. “The courts have been ordering demolition of illegal encroachments, but when will they order to stop economic exploitation [of Urdu speaking people]?”

He, however, added that it was not the MQM-P’s job alone to stop the injustices being meted out by the PPP.

Mr Subzwari said that the MQM-P had negotiated with the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on the issue of quota system and urban Sindh’s empowerment.

Demand for judicial commission

He demanded that a judicial commission be formed on the quota system in Sindh. “The Supreme Court through a commission or a judge shall examine as to how urban Sindh has been neglected in the quota system,” he said.

He alleged that local government representatives of Karachi and Hyderabad were not given their due right. He said that people would raise a demand for a separate province if “we are not given an empowered local government system”.

Mr Subzwari said that it was the right of the people of Karachi to demand a separate province if injustices to urban Sindh were not stopped.

He said that the MQM-P was being pushed to consider their decision to support the 18th Amendment as their mistake.

Mr Jameel said that the Sindh government had snatched the rights of the Urdu-speaking people and the injustices could be gauged from the fact that none of the divisional commissioners in Sindh were Urdu speaking.

He said that the Karachi operation launched in 2013 had been turned solely against the MQM and it had stopped the voice of Mohajirs. “It is the responsibility of those carrying out the operation to protect the economic, educational rights of Mohajirs,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2019