KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) described those at the helm of affairs of the newly formed local government in Karachi as ‘rejected people’, saying it was actually the boycott of the MQM that allowed ‘others’ to install their mayor and deputy mayor.

Addressing a public gathering in Liaquatabad, MQM-P convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, while referring to the 15-year rule of the Pakistan Peoples Party in Sindh, went a step ahead and questioned the claims made by Mayor Murtaza Wahab about his loyalty with Karachi.

“Before calling yourself a son of Karachi, I ask you to give answer about your performance for the past 15 years. First bring back the money you plundered from Karachi and its people,” he said, without naming the PPP, which is his party’s ally in the federal government.

He said that it was an irony that the “law enforcers and law breakers” both were non-locals in this city.

He said that Karachi contributed more than Rs3 trillion to the national revenue every year, but it was treated as an orphaned city with no one in the ruling class ready to own the metropolis and its people.

Commercial areas of Liaquatabad, he said, paid more taxes than the entire city of Lahore but not even peanuts were returned to the people of the city in terms of basic facilities.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2023