KARACHI: Almost two months after his 30-day ultimatum to the authorities to solve the city’s problems, Pak Sarzameen Party chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal on Thursday announced to launch a protest campaign from the first week of April for the rights of Karachiites and predicted a ‘landslide victory’ for his party in the next general elections in Sindh.

Mr Kamal was addressing a PSP workers’ convention that emerged as a show of power at Nishtar Park where his party leaders claimed that no other political party had organised such a huge gathering at the historical ground.

“Let me tell you that we are going to form the Sindh government after 2018 elections,” he said while earning a roar from the crowd. “And then in the next elections after that in 2023 we will set up government in the Centre. Those who called us party of the establishment should come and witness this crowd of our workers only. We are a party of the people of Karachi who welcomed us and have now become part of this organisation,” said the PSP chairman.

Party eyes ‘landslide victory’ in next elections across province

A large number of people, including women and children, attended the workers’ convention. The workers, waving national flag and youngsters among them dancing to the tunes of party songs, had started arriving at the venue in the second half of the day though the convention was addressed by the leaders an hour after sunset. In his speech, Mr Kamal, who returned to Karachi in the first week of March 2016 and launched his own party on March 23, said that the PSP within a year had gathered enough strength to fight for the rights of Karachi in a democratic way. That’s the reason, he said, he had given a 30-day ultimatum in January 2017 to the authorities to solve the problems of Karachi, or else be prepared to face the consequences.

“During the past five years, some Rs906 billion was spent on Karachi’s education and health,” he said.

“But is there anyone who could believe that this huge sum had been spent on the betterment of the Karachiites? The people of this city know the fact very well that all this amount went into the pockets of the rulers,” he said.

Despite Rs906bn being spent on health and education, the city did not even get nine new schools and nine new hospitals, he remarked.

Referring to corruption and misappropriation of funds that deprived the city of its due rights, the PSP chairman, also the former mayor of Karachi, announced to launch a protest movement from April 6. He appealed to the people to raise their voice for their rights regardless of their ethnic, political and sectarian backgrounds.

Earlier, addressing the convention, PSP president Anis Kaimkhani targeted his opponents without naming factions of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement when he said they were fast turning “irrelevant”.

“Those who ridiculed our return to the country and our decision to launch a party on the basis of nationalism should be ashamed of themselves,” he said.

“Their party offices are locked and no one in Karachi is ready to own them. The people of Karachi have proved that they are patriotic and cannot accept anyone who is against nationalism and Pakistan,” he added.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2017