KARACHI: Pak Sarzameen Party chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal said on Tuesday that his party had ended ethnic politics in Sindh by clearly taking a stand against the division of the province.

“We have burnt the Sindhi and Mohajir cards by speaking against the division of Sindh and now the people of the province have been asking both the MQM and PPP what they have done for them,” he told a press conference.

The presser was held to announce joining of 1,001 political workers at the party’s Pakistan House headquarters. PSP president Anis Kaimkhani and other leaders were also present.

He also announced that the party would soon hold a women-only rally in Karachi’s Central district.

He said that the people of Sindh had rejected the politics of division.

“They [the MQM] cannot get separated even a street in Liaquatabad in the name of Mohajir, but they are demanding a separate province just to fool the people,” he said, adding that the Pakistan Peoples Party also took advantage of the MQM-P demand by asking Sindhis to vote for the party as it was against the division of Sindh.

He said now Mohajir, Sindhi, Punjabi, Pakhtun and Baloch had no other option but to join the PSP for the solution of their problems.

Demands Karachi mayor’s arrest

He said he had already informed the people that the MQM would never quit the government but the whole “drama” was to get another federal ministry for party MNA Aminul Haq.

He said the MQM-P wanted funds and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government was going to give funds to Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar as “political bribe”.

“The mayor got Rs36 billion in the head of district ADP [annual development programme] ... the mayor should be arrested and held accountable for this Rs36bn amount,” he added.

Kashmir

Criticising the PTI government for merely turning off traffic signals on a weekly basis as part of its effort to express solidarity with the oppressed Kashmiri people, he said the occupied valley had been held hostage for the past several months as India turned the region into a big jail.

He said the Kashmiri people were looking towards Pakistan for help and the government should take concrete measures rather than extending traditional moral support for them.

The PSP chief said that India should be paid in the same coin if it tried to impose war on Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the PSP said that 390 workers belonging to the MQM, 180 from the PTI, 111 from PPP, 57 from PML-Nawaz were among those who joined the party.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2020