KARACHI: Criticising the PPP for opposing new administrative units in the country, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan leader Syed Mustafa Kamal on Sunday said that the ruling party in Sindh had repeatedly divided Karachi on ethnic lines during its different tenures.

​He said this while addressing a big public gathering in Orangi Town organised in connection with the party’s campaign against the “18-year misrule of the Pakistan Peoples Party and in favour of creating new administrative units”.

Mr Kamal, who is the federal health minister, said that while the PPP opposes the administrative reorganisation of Sindh, it previously divided Karachi for its own gains.

“Once a single district, Karachi was carved into seven districts by the PPP under the guise of administrative needs — whereas Lahore, despite a population of 15 million, remains a single district,” he said.

Holds rally in Orangi Town in favour of new administrative units

He asserted that the PPP repeatedly divided Karachi on ethnic grounds by creating Malir and then Keamari districts.

He noted that the PPP-led Sindh government received Rs22 trillion over 18 years, along with Rs2.263tr allocated this year alone, but it turned Karachi from an economic hub into one of the world’s least liveable cities, where children drown in open sewers and residents lack basic drinking water.

​He declared that the struggle for the rights of Karachi and urban Sindh has reached a decisive phase.

“This gathering is not about soliciting votes; it is a battleground to secure the survival and rights of our future generations. MQM-Pakistan has put an end to the politics of division — the rulers of Sindh can no longer pit the people against one another,” he said.

Mr Kamal said that those opposing new administrative units were actually opposing the Constitution framed by former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

​“Establishing a new province on administrative grounds is neither unconstitutional nor undemocratic,” Mr Kamal said, adding: “Article 239 provides the exact mechanism for creating new provinces, framed by Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto himself.”

He advised the PPP to direct its criticism toward its own founder instead of the MQM-P.

​​Reflecting on his tenure as Karachi mayor, he said that he delivered Rs300 billion worth of development from Orangi Town to Lyari, driving Karachi into the rank of the world’s 12 fastest-growing cities. ​

​Expressing deep grief over the tragic deaths of 14 infants at Pims, Islamabad, he called for “equal concern and grief” over the death of 1,300 children who die daily across Pakistan’s four provinces not from illness, but from severe malnutrition.

He announced that the MQM-P would hold a “Pakhtun rally” on Sept 27 at Sohrab Goth in support of new administrative units.

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2026