HYDERABAD: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) on Friday held a protest demonstration outside the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) building against amendments to the local government law and vowed to take the protest to every road and street in Sindh.

Speaking to the participants, the party’s deputy convener Kanwar Naveed Jamil said that the amendments were aimed at rendering local government institutions powerless, and regretted that the higher authorities and judiciary were not taking notice of the excesses let loose by the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party in the province.

“The biased PPP government is not ready to devolve powers to LG institutions and empower those whose forefathers had created this country.” he said.

He noted with concern that employees of the HMC were not being paid their salaries.

Vows to launch struggle for rights, separate province

“Sindh government gets Rs1,400bn from cities while Rs700-750bn collected by federal government from residents of major cities is transferred to the province. Despite this massive funding, Sindh government is not ready to address people’s issues of minor nature.

Mr Jamil pointed out that the water filtration plants built during his tenure as district nazim in this city had still remained dysfunctional and people were made to consume filth-mixed water. He said road infrastructure, parks and playgrounds in Hyderabad were in a shabby condition. He said that the institutions collecting revenues were already under the control of Sindh government and now, through amendments to the LG law, it was going to take control of hospitals and schools run by local government.

“This is being done by PPP to deprive people of their right to employment and earn money to stash it in foreign accounts through corruption. PPP wants to control budget of LG institutions,” Mr Jamil alleged. He also accused the ruling party of buying votes through corruption.

The MQM-P deputy convener said that his party had a grievance against institutions. “PPP is committing atrocities against children of founders of Pakistan but these institutions are not taking cognizance of it. Our petition regarding important issues is also pending in supreme court but it is not being taken up,” he said.

He deplored that fake domiciles were issued in this government to deprive residents of urban centres of job opportunities. People from other districts were recruited in Karachi and Hyderabad on such fake domicile. “Urdu-speaking youths do not get jobs in provincial departments, including police,” he added.

The MQM-P leader asked the Urdu-speaking community to decide whether it would bear with a life of slavery or like to get its youths the right to education, employment and due facilities. “We [the community] will have to come out of our houses to get our due rights. We will not tolerate these excesses any longer. We will launch a struggle for the rights and get a separate province created,” he said.

He said his party did not need ‘favour’ from national institutions but justice. He called for holding the PPP government accountable.

MQM-P coordination committee members Dr Zafar Kamali, Sohail Mash’hadi, MPAs Rashid Khilji and Nasir Qureshi also spoke.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2021