HYDERABAD: Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal has said that no change could be brought about in the country until powers were devolved to the third tier of governance. He insisted on three amendments to the Constitution in this regard.

He was speaking at his party’s general workers’ gathering at Pucca Qila on Friday night.

He said PSP’s six-day protest sit-in in Karachi met with success for which participants’ resolve must be appreciated. The protest was aimed at getting PSP’s demand of transfer of powers to people accepted, he said.

“We got 80pc achievement in our protest as Sindh government accepted 80pc of our demands and that’s why we postponed the protest,” he said.

Mr Kamal said that the Sindh chief minister was in charge of Rs1,200bn but he was not transferring powers to the third tier after the 18th Constitutional Amendment.

“If the ruling PPP does not implement our demands as have been agreed, PSP will decide its future course of action. We are reviewing the situation,” he remarked.

He said Pakistan needed three constitutional amendments. These amendments should cover guarantees for transfer of funds to the third tier of governance after funds’ transfer from federal to provincial governments; inclusion of a complete chapter on local bodies; and linking of national and provincial assemblies’ elections with existence of local bodies system.

The PSP chief said that in the past, Mutthaida Qaumi Movement (MQM) had agreed to the 2013 LG system and Dr Farooq Sattar handed over 80pc powers to [then CM] Qaim Ali Shah; MQM had its governor till 2016.

He said that despite being in power, MQM failed to provide clean drinking water and other basic amenities to people. “People are still without basic amenities,” he said, and added that “PPP has spent Rs10,000bn, still it could not improve living conditions in Sindh”. In the past, there used to be ‘ghost teachers’ but now there are ‘ghost schools’ numbering 11,000.

He said that he being the city nazim had spent Rs300bn to make Karachi one of the developed cities in the world.

Mr Kamal said the MQM-Pakistan could not replace covers of manholes yet it was talking about creating a province. He said that Azeem Tariq and Dr Imran Farooq were got killed, adding that a respectable citizen had to leave [Altaf-led] MQM or get himself killed.

He said that Muhajir youths would have to understand that they were irrelevant for so-called father of Muhajirs [Altaf Hussain], who could kill even Dr Imran Farooq after 35 years of association with him.

He said that the 2012 confessional statement submitted with Scotland Yard proved that MQM received money from [Indian intelligence agency] RAW. He recalled that the minutes of a meeting with RAW [agents] were available and Altaf Hussain recorded his statements for three days. He said Altaf Hussain had told [then interior minister] Rehman Malik that he [Altaf] had been getting money from RAW for the last 22 years and he [Mr Malik] should save him now.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2022