KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) on Thursday claimed that it would hold a massive rally on Saturday to highlight the “injustice” being meted out to the urban areas of Sindh as it was being constantly neglected by the Pakistan Peoples Party-led provincial government.

Speaking at a press conference here at the party’s temporary headquarters in Bahadurabad, MQM-P convener and federal minister Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said that the party was pumped up to bounce back after its mandate in Karachi was “snatched through illegal means” and the Saturday rally at Jinnah Ground near the Quaid’s mausoleum would prove its popularity in urban Sindh.

“We have seen the rulers of this province for the last more than a decade defending 18th Amendment,” he said. “But the fact is the MQM and the entire nation were cheated in the name of 18th Amendment as instead of devolving powers to the lowest level, according to the spirit of the legislation, provinces usurped all powers. The resources meant for the common man have been snatched in the name of 18th Amendment. Democracy assures rights to the common man but this amendment in fact deprives the common man of his rights.”

He said the MQM-P was paying the price of being patriotic and standing by the Constitution. All offices of the party were sealed and closed despite the fact that the MQM-P was the largest single organisation of urban Sindh, but this “oppression” would not prevent it from staging a successful power show on Saturday.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2019