KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) on Thursday accused Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari of threatening Karachi traders.

Demanding the “authorities” to take notice of the threat, it insisted that the Muttahida had “only endured the biased Sindh government for the sake of democracy in the country”.

Addressing a press conference, the top MQM-P leadership sounded angry over the recent address of the PPP chairman to the Karachi businessmen in which he had told them that they should come to him with their grievances instead of going to “other forums”.

In the same address at a lunch hosted to the businessmen of the city, Mr Bhutto-Zardari had also defended his party’s performance and reminded them of the situation in Karachi that prevailed before 2008, when the PPP formed the government.

However, the address didn’t go down well with the MQM-P ranks which saw it as an open threat to the traders.

MQM-P chairman Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said that for the past 15 years “a so-called artificial majority government” had been running in Sindh under the guise of democracy.

The Muttahida, he said, was the only representative party of urban areas in Sindh which had been consistently protesting the ongoing injustices in the province.

“Similarly, traders and industrialists have also been expressing their concerns,” he said.

“When the PPP chairman and Sindh chief minister invited traders and industrialists, we were under the misconception that they would apologise for the previous injustices and announce corrective measures. Instead, the language used by the ruling class was nothing less than a threat. This is a tragic situation where one group invests 100 per cent of the resources and capacity to run the province, while another group, which holds less than 1 per cent share, controls all the resources.”

Senior party leader Mustafa Kamal said that businessmen of Karachi were threatened and that the authorities should take its notice.

The traders and industrialists, he said, had also presented their proposals and concerns before the chief of the army staff, which “offended certain individuals”.

“The MQM Pakistan has always stood by its business community. We have always advocated for the welfare of our people,” he said.

“For all these injustices with this city and urban Sindh, the MQM-P’s demand is very clear. We firmly believe that the 27th Constitutional Amendment is the guarantee for Pakistan’s survival and development. The PPP has dressed the rural and urban quotas up, which in reality were the “Sindhi-Mohajir quotas”.

Another party leader, Dr Farooq Sattar, said that the PPP had “enslaved” the entire Sindh and it’s the feudal mindset which was affecting every provincial institution and system of governance.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2025