KARACHI: Pak Sarzameen Party chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal on Saturday alleged that the Pakistan Peoples Party was “sowing the seeds of hatred” just to prolong its rule in Sindh.

“PPP has been sowing the seeds of hatred among oppressed Sindhis since long. First, it imposed a quota system on linguistic basis, then it nationalised the businesses of people of Karachi and today despite having its government for the last 13 years it did not give even one bus to Karachi, increase the city’s water share or open a new hospital,” he told a press conference at party headquarters here.

He clarified that the PSP was not against common Sindhis as it was the PPP which, he said, had been committing “injustices” with Mohajirs in urban areas of the province.

Accompanied by PSP president Anis Kaimkhani and others, he said that the PPP had adopted a novel way to usurp jobs reserved for people of Karachi by transferring people from other districts of Sindh and posting them to the metropolis. “Do you think the youths of Karachi are not qualified to get government jobs? These tactics are deepening the sense of deprivation among Mohajirs,” he said.

“People of Karachi are not biased ... they never were ... but it is disappointing that other political parties of Sindh, including Functional League, GDA, do not bother to raise their voice against injustices being meted out to people of urban areas by the PPP,” he said, adding that their silence meant that they were actually supporting the PPP.

Equally critical of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, Mr Kamal alleged that the MQM-P was talking about the Mohajir province for the sake of its “dirty” politics as its leaders called themselves Sindhi instead of Mohajir on the floor of the Sindh Assembly where they never moved a single resolution seeking a new province.

He said that the MQM-P would happily run towards Bilawal House as soon as PPP offered them ministries in the Sindh cabinet. “They want the genocide of Mohajirs by talking about division of Sindh,” he said.

Mr Kamal said that his party fully supported city traders in all their demands.

He urged the traders not to pay extortion to local administration and police and instead “stop them, grab them and film them” if they demand bribe.

He demanded that the provincial government waive six months of taxes on Karachi traders.

He said that being a Mohajir he could not stop from raising his voice on injustices committed against his community.

He said that the solution of Pakistan and Sindh’s problem lay in a three-point agenda under which the federal government should link the provincial finance commission award with the National Finance Commission Award; devolution of powers as envisaged in 18th Amendment to the Constitution and addition of a separate chapter in the Constitution on local government system.

He said he would welcome MQM-P convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui if he decided to support his party in the three-point agenda and resigned from assemblies.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2021