KARACHI: Pak Sarzameen Party chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal said on Friday that the resignation of federal minister Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui was the outcome of a power tussle within the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan and it had nothing to do with the issues of Karachi.

Accusing senior MQM-P leader Amir Khan of plotting against Dr Siddiqui, he alleged that it was Mr Khan who had forced the MQM-P convener to resign from his ministry as he wanted to make his “favourites” part of the federal cabinet.

He said this while talking to the media outside the accountability courts after his appearance in a NAB reference.

“We condemn the conspiracy against Khalid bhai and we stand with him because neither he has blood of Mohajir youth on his hands nor he created a Haqiqi-like party,” he said, referring to the Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi which was the former party of Mr Khan.

“I ask Kanwar Naveed Jameel [deputy convener of MQM-P and its parliamentary party leader in Sindh Assembly] and his workers to cooperate with Khalid bhai for the good of Karachi as he was not involved in any killings,” he said.

Justifying his accusation against a party he left many years ago, he said that he would have never talked about Dr Siddiqui’s resignation if it was an internal matter of the MQM-P.

He said he was talking about it because the MQM-P was doing politics of resignations in the name of Mohajirs.

He asked the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government to not worry over the MQM’s resignation as it would not quit the federal government.

‘MQM cannot afford to quit govt’

He said that it would soon be business as usual as the MQM-P could not afford to quit the government.

“They know files of MQM’s UC chairmen till the members of the coordination committee are ready and everyone, including the mayor, will be arrested as soon as they quit the government,” he added.

He said if MQM-P was serious about the city’s issues, it should have taken the resignation of Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar as he had done “nothing” for the metropolis during his nearly four-year term.

The PSP chief alleged that Mayor Akhtar was not being removed by the MQM-P because he was looking after the expenses of the Muttahida’s coordination committee by getting involved in “corruption”.

He said that if the MQM-P was sincere with Karachi it could have taken up the issues with the prime minister like “seven million missing people” in the census results of Karachi and ownership rights for the residents of Martin Quarters, Pakistan Quarters, etc.

Muttahida refutes

Meanwhile, MQM-P leader Khwaja Izharul Hasan said that there was no difference within the MQM-P. “Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui is our convener and we are working under his guidance,” he added.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2020