HYDERABAD: Muttahida Qau­mi Move­ment-Pakistan candi­da­tes from Hyderabad constituen­cies on Thursday condem­ned withdrawal of the administration’s permission for their party’s public meeting in the Pucca Qila ground scheduled for Friday.

Speaking at a press conference in the ground, Salahuddin, Sabir Kaim­khani and Rashid Khilji, along with other party colleagues, alleged that the MQM-P was being preven­ted from continuing with its election campaign while its opponents were being given a free hand for their electioneering.

They said that their party was adhering to the code of conduct spelt out by the Election Commis­sion of Pakistan (ECP) but nobody was checking its violation by MQM-P’s opponents.

Explaining the alleged viola­tion, they claimed that MQM-P’s banners and flags were removed although they were not hoisted/dis­pla­yed on government prop­er­ties. They also alleged that MQM-P workers were being arrested.

Salahuddin, a candidate for the NA-227 constituency in which the Pucca Qila ground is located, said that the permission to hold the public meeting there was earlier granted by the district adminis­tration after due process but the same “has now been ver­bally with­drawn on the pretext of a threat alert”.

He insisted that the venue was one of the safest locations and alleged that “still the administra­tion is discriminating against us”.

“The withdrawal of per­mi­s­sion is farmaishi pro­gramme,” he fur­ther alle­ged.

Alluding to the Pak Sar­za­meen Party (PSP) rally held on Thursday (today) in the city, Salahuddin said it miserably failed; it had some private and govern­ment vehicles, but not public.

He said that MQM-P was run­ning its election cam­paign with its hands tied.

He stated that the administration was reques­ted to consider some other route for MQM-P opponents’ rally [if it falls within the precinct of MQM-P public meeting] but the opponents’ rally taken out on Wednes­day evening adopted the route on which his party’s corner meeting was under way. “Our opponents’ activities are being facilita­ted by the administration,” he alleged.

MQM-P candidate for NA-226 Latifabad Sabir Kaim­khani com­plain­ed that his party had started a new journey on Aug 23, 2016 for Pakistan but still it was facing curbs on its political activities. How­ever, he added, “we will not leave the field open for anyone”.

He said that cancellation of permission was an attempt to break MQM-P’s spirit but the party would continue with its election campaign.

Rashid Khilji, the party’s candidate for PS-66, claim­ed that police had picked up Hamid, Adnan, Mohammad Ali and other MQM-P activists.

He said he spoke to the SHO of the Fort police station in this regard but did not get a satisfactory reply from him. He called for putting an end to the arrest of party workers.

Mohajir slogan overexploited, says Kamal

MIRPURKHAS: Pak Sarza­meen Party chief Mustafa Kamal has said that Mohajir slogan has been exploited so much and so often to get votes from Urdu-speaking people that Mohajirs and others will no more pay any attention to it.

He said while leading a rally organised by his party here on Thursday that PSP had brought great change in Karachi which had seen massacre of youths over the past two decades in the name of ethnic politics and kept people divided into Mohajir, Pathan, Sindhi, Baloch and Punjabi.

The party had put an end to ethnic politics and brought together all communities on one platform to ensure better future for coming generations, he said.

Today, he said, youths were jobless in Karachi and interior of Sindh which had been devastated by massive corruption. He vowed his party candidates would serve the masses after winning election because “we have character not empty slogans”.

He appealed to people to vote for dolphin on July 25 to save nation’s future.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2018