KARACHI: About a week after Prime Minister Imran Khan declared that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf was not in favour of division of Sindh, his coalition partner, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, has asked him to order investigations into appointments of non-residents of Karachi and Hyderabad to government jobs on “fake” domiciles and permanent residence certificates (PRCs).

The MQM-P has been accusing the Pakistan Peoples Party-led Sindh government of neglecting urban population in government jobs and a party leader also filed a writ petition in the Sindh High Court, alleging that the jobs were being sold in the province by issuing fake domiciles and PRCs.

A party leader told Dawn that the MQM-P was not part of the May 24 meeting with the prime minister in Karachi because it had hosted an iftar-dinner on that day. “So the PM gave us time for a meeting in Islamabad to discuss progress on all issues.”

A statement issued by the Prime Minister Office said that an MQM delegation, led by party convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, called on Prime Minister Imran Khan in Islamabad on Wednesday and discussed with the latter issues relating to government jobs on fake domiciles and PRCs, development projects of Karachi and Hyderabad and creation of a provincial finance commission (PFC) in Sindh.

Party delegation discusses with PM uplift projects in Karachi and Hyderabad, creation of provincial finance commission

However, the statement remained silent whether the MQM delegation raised its concern over the prime minister’s recent statement on division of Sindh — a demand it has been making for the last one year.

During his visit to Karachi last week, PM Khan had held a meeting with the Sindh PTI leadership and other coalition partners, minus the MQM, and assured them that he was not in favour of another province in Sindh as “after introduction of the PTI’s new local bodies system there would be no need for any kind of division in the province”.

The MQM took exception to the prime minister’s statement and its senior leader Amir Khan reportedly said in Hyderabad that Mr Khan’s statement on the issue “hurt sentiments of MQM-P and its followers”.

A day later, MQM convener Dr Siddiqui told reporters that the prime minister had conveyed to the party that his viewpoint on new provinces was not presented correctly and his coalition parties’ stance was presented in the media as that of him.

According to the PM Office statement, members of the MQM delegation include federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecom Dr Siddiqui, Law Minister Dr Farogh Nasim, senior leaders Kanwar Naveed, Amir Khan, Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar, MNA Aminul Haq and Faisal Subzwari.

Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Khusro Bakhtiar and PM’s special assistant Naeem-ul-Haque were also present.

It said the MQM-P called upon the prime minister to order a probe into the “corruption and illegal practices” of depriving the residents of Karachi and Hyderabad in government jobs by appointing people having fake domiciles and PRCs on their place in big cities of Sindh.

PM Khan was also requested to ensure constitution of a PFC to make sure just distribution of the National Finance Commission award at the provincial level. The party asked the prime minister to ensure that Karachi and Hyderabad and other big cities get their legitimate right in development funds until the creation of the PFC.

The meeting also discussed at length Karachi’s development projects, said the statement.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2019