KARACHI: Another self-exiled provincial lawmaker belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan returned to the country and joined the Mustafa Kamal-led Pak Sarzameen Party on Friday.

Irtiza Khalil Farooqui, a member of the Sindh Assembly from PS-119 (Shah Faisal), told a press conference at the Karachi Press Club that he was resigning from his assembly seat and joining the “caravan of Mustafa Kamal and Anis Kaimkhani”.

“Why should I face the punishment of someone else’s crime by living in exile?” he said, adding that he joined the PSP on the call of his conscience as he found “a true path” in the shape of the party.

Accompanied by Mr Kamal and other PSP leaders, he reminded MQM-P head Dr Farooq Sattar that the MQM was the party of “only one person” and no one else’s.

Referring to the Aug 22 incendiary speech of London-based MQM founder Altaf Hussain, he said: “We live in Pakistan so how can we chant any slogan against the country?”

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Kamal welcomed Mr Farooqui in the PSP fold.

Mr Farooqui had also served as the acting nazim of now defunct Shah Faisal Town. He became an MPA in 2013. He was also a joint in-charge of the MQM’s Karachi Tanzeemi Committee.

In less than three weeks, he was the second MPA who quit the MQM and joined the PSP. On March 22, MPA Sheikh Abdullah also returned from abroad and joined the PSP.

After the March 3, 2016 return of Mr Kamal, a total of seven MPAs and one MNA belonging to the MQM had switched their loyalty and joined the PSP.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2017