The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) on Saturday warned of issuing a protest call if the Centre did not ensure that the party’s 2022 agreement with PPP on various provincial issues was implemented.

MQM-P and PPP had signed an 18-point agreement on March 30, 2022 — just before the two joined hands with other parties to remove PTI’s Imran Khan as the prime minister. MQM-P’s demands ranged from municipal government structure to future power-sharing formula and recruitment policy in Sindh to local policing system.

Addressing a press conference in Karachi, Farooq Sattar referred to that deal as the “last agreement between MQM-P and PPP”.

He stressed that his party had not demanded to be included in the provincial government or sought authority over Sindh’s resources.

Sattar claimed that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari held “no meeting despite repeated reminders from MQM-P” on the agreement to implement a Supreme Court order regarding local governments within one month.

“This was not implemented. This entire agreement was not implemented. This has around 18 points, out of which not even one was implemented,” the MQM-P leader asserted.

Highlighting that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (then the PML-N president), Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Akhtar Mengal and Khalid Hussain Magsi had signed the pact as witnesses, Sattar called for the Centre to take action.

Sattar said: “You (Bilawal) have a direct signature on our rights and the solution of our problems, but the witness of this nikah, this relationship, is mian Shehbaz Sharif, so he [and] the federal government — I am not using the word intervention — but they would have to get involved.

“And these 18 points would have to be implemented; otherwise, the question remains of when and how MQM-P issues a protest call,” he said, adding that PM Shehbaz must also fulfil his responsibility.

The MQM-P leader stressed that his “SOS call” was not just for Bilawal and President Asif Ali Zardari, but also for the prime minister, whom he termed the “guarantor” of the agreement.

He reiterated that MQM-P was “giving a final warning” to the federal government and PM Shehbaz.

“You will have to get involved somewhere, or else MQM-P will begin such a protest movement that no one will be able to bring back MQM-P, the people of Karachi and those residing in other cities of Sindh,” Sattar said.

He urged the premier to visit Karachi and resolve the matter before “public deprivation, injustice and lack of attention and confidence cross all limits and they take to the streets”.

Sattar said his party was “in contact” with the public regarding a protest movement, adding that the Centre should not interfere later on to stop them.

At one point during his press talk, Sattar said he was not addressing Bilawal as much, but rather “calling on the Centre to fulfil its Constitutional role”.

The MQM-P leader said a referendum should be held under Article 149 of the Constitution, which allows the federal government to issue directives to provinces in certain cases.

Calling for the abolishment of the quota system for government jobs, Sattar said that even the parity of 60:40 for rural/urban Sindh agreed under the pact was not implemented.

Noting that a joint commission on the issue of fake domiciles had not been formed, the MQM-P leader said President Zardari, or even PM Shehbaz if needed, must get involved if Bilawal failed to implement that.

Sharjeel Memon assails MQM-P’s ‘political blackmailing’

In response to MQM-P’s press conference, Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said the “mandate of the people of Sindh, the 1973 Constitution and the province are not experimental grounds to be targeted whenever a party’s politics becomes weak”.

According to a statement issued on X by the Sindh Information Department, Memon said Sattar should remember that people of Sindh had given a “clear mandate” to the PPP, adding that “it cannot be changed through a press conference, threat or political blackmailing”.

Memon further said: “If MQM-P wants to get a big share in power, the path lies through the public’s vote. Power cannot be gained through federal intervention or by dragging constitutional institutions into political disputes.”

The Sindh minister contended that MQM-P believed in the “politics of shortcuts rather than public mandate” and termed its use of federal intervention as evidence of the party’s “political blackmailing”.

“MQM-P should not turn the resources of Karachi’s people into a means of political bargaining,” Memon quipped.

Further assailing MQM-P, the PPP leader said the former’s demand to hand over Karachi’s matters to the Centre was a “heinous conspiracy against the federal structure”.

The minister questioned why MQM-P could not have its promises for Karachi fulfilled despite being a part of the ruling coalition, and urged Sattar’s party to question its allies in the Centre.

While PPP and MQM-P are the ruling PML-N’s allies in the Centre, MQM-P sits in the opposition in the PPP-led Sindh and criticises the provincial government for its administration of Karachi.

Since the deadly Gul Plaza fire on January 17 sparked a debate over the need for reforms in LGs, MQM-P has repeatedly called for Karachi to be declared a “federal territory”.

After MQM-P urged Bilawal to seek resignations from Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab, the top PPP leadership publicly reaffirmed their confidence in the Sindh government and the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC).