KARACHI, March 2: In what appears to be a veiled message to those favouring the continuation of a rural and urban quota system in Sindh, Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain said on Friday that nobody wanted the division of Sindh, but he would stop talking about unity if the “prejudicial attitude” continued.

“If nationalists persist in their prejudicial attitude towards the Urdu-speaking Sindhis they will stop listening to the talk of unity and solidarity from Altaf Hussain,” the MQM chief said while addressing party workers who came at the MQM’s headquarters to congratulate the party on winning four seats of Senate from Sindh.

The MQM is opposing a proposal to extend the quota system for another 20 years through a constitutional amendment.

At present, Sindh is the only province divided on an urban and rural basis, whereby the rural quota is 60 per cent and the remaining 40 per cent goes for those living in urban parts of the province.

No such division is in the Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.

In his telephone address, Mr Hussain specifically addressed to Sindhi nationalists and said that all residents of Sindh were sons of the soil and none of them wanted the division of the province.

He congratulated MQM’s Senators-elect Syed Mustafa Kamal, Tahir Mashhadi, Nasreen Jalil and Barrister Farogh Nasim and instructed them to raise their voice for the recovery of the missing people, rights of the oppressed people and abolition of the feudal system.

He said the end of the corrupt political culture and dynastic politics had started and time was not far off when the educated, capable and honest people would be elected.

He said there were reports that up to Rs350 million was paid for one vote in Senate elections, which was in sharp contrast to the MQM whose senators were elected without spending a single rupee.

He said the election of MQM senators was the beginning of the real change in the country.

Mr Hussain said that the integrity of the country was being threatened and big powers were playing an evil game against Pakistan.

He called upon senators-elect to use their best abilities for integrity and security of the country.

Earlier, a large number of MQM workers converged at the MQM’s headquarters, popularly known as Nine Zero, to celebrate the election win of four nominees of the MQM.