KARACHI: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s ‘Huqooq-i-Sindh’ march, which started from Ghotki on Feb 26 and after passing through major cities and towns of the province culminated in Karachi on Sunday evening, vowed that Sindh was ready for change and 2023 would prove to be the year of PTI’s victory.

A large number of workers led by city leaders of the PTI welcomed the march when it entered the metropolis via main National Highway.

The march turned into a big public meeting at Quaidabad, where central leaders including PTI vice chairman and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi made speeches.

The party also presented a charter of demands at the conclusion of the march, which was read by PTI Sindh president and Maritime Affairs Minister Ali Zaidi.

The PTI demanded new legislation on the local government system, appointment of an ‘impartial and non-political’ administrator of Karachi, announcement of the provincial finance commission award at district level, ending ‘political interference’ in police, issuance of a no-objection certificate for a public sector university in Hyderabad, better transport system for Karachi, provision of health card to every citizen in Sindh and devolution of powers at the grassroots level.

Qureshi predicts end of PPP’s rule in province; Ali Zaidi presents charter of demands

The PTI also urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice on murders in which PPP lawmakers were allegedly involved.

It also called for early decision on the dual nationality case against Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, completion of trial on ‘fake’ degree cases and ‘fake account’ cases.

The party also demanded setting up of a judicial commission on the deaths of medical students and ‘injustices’ meted out with them in colleges, and ‘targeted killings’ of media workers in the province.

Earlier, addressing the impressive crowd, Mr Qureshi said: “The PTI has started its journey from Karachi, and the PPP’s decline would also emerge from the city.”

Referring to the last general elections, he said: “It [Karachi] was the city where a silent revolution took place in 2018. I am sensing a change in Sindh as people of Sindh are disappointed after experiencing the 15-year-long rule of the PPP.”

He accused the PPP of ‘burying the politics of Bhutto and promoting the politics of Zardari’.

Talking about cultural diversity of Karachi, the foreign minister said the country’s intelligentsia lived in the Sindh’s provincial capital where Urdu, Seraiki, Punjabi and Pashtu languages were also being spoken.

He said that during the march, they visited entire Sindh and observed helplessness, unemployment and other problems being faced by the masses as the PPP had failed to give any relief.

He declared that Prime Minister Imran Khan was a brave leader, who would not give ‘NRO’ to the ‘corrupt gang’.

“People are thinking that they had given PPP opportunities for five time but PPP’s slogan of roti, kapra and makan was far from realisation and only a chosen few got prosper in Sindh during its 15-year rule,” he said.

He said after 18th amendment clean water, health, education and other basic facilities were responsibilities of the province but the PPP failed to fulfil its core responsibilities. “PPP has sown the seeds of ethnic and linguistic division and divided masses to prolong its rule, but PTI is determined to unite all the sections of the society.”

Speaking on the occasion, Ali Zaidi said that PTI returned successful in the 2018 general election in Karachi and it would repeat the same performance again in 2023 throughout the province and would form its government in Sindh.

He said that the government would not give any “NRO to thieves and looters’ of the country, who were bent upon conspiring.

He asked PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to first give rights to the people of Sindh then launch the long march against the PTI government.

Opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh, MPA Khurram Sher Zaman, Mobin Jatoi, Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Bilal Ghaffar and others also spoke on this occasion.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2022