KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) on Sunday accused the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party of deliberately promoting an ethnic divide and hatred for its vested political interests.

The party, which is an ally of the PPP in the federal government but its opponent in Sindh, also doubted the role of the federation for not questioning the ruling party in the province for depriving Karachi of its due rights.

“The ethnic divide in Sindh is the political need of the PPP,” MQM-P convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui told a party meeting organised in honour of the Hindu community at a local hotel.

He said it was his party that had designed the mass transit plan for Karachi in 1988, but then prime minister Benazir Bhutto denied on behalf of the federal government sovereign guarantees required for the project.

Speaking on the occasion, senior MQM-P leader Mustafa Kamal said that the Centre paid Rs1,400 billion every year to the Sindh government under the National Finance Commission, but the provincial government of the PPP had yet to offer funds to the local governments under the provincial finance commission.

“And it’s doesn’t end here. This government even exploits the quota system which itself is unjust and defies all standards of merit,” he added.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2023