KARACHI: Pak Sarzameen Party chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal said on Wednesday that the people of Karachi had great hopes with the army chief and the chief justice of Pakistan that their visits to get first-hand knowledge about the affairs of the metropolis would result in the solution of their long-standing civic, administrative and socioeconomic problems.

Speaking at a press conference here, he said that Karachiites had no trust in the federal and provincial governments, both of which had miserably failed in resolving their problems, but they believed that the army chief and the CJP were seriously concerned about finding a way out for their city.

Accompanied by PSP president Anis Kaimkhani and others, he, however, cast doubts over the prime minister’s Rs1.1 trillion Karachi Transformation Plan and said that it appeared that the package “has [gotten] lost somewhere as soon as other political developments [in the country] take place”.

“Instead of resolving Karachi’s problems, the ruthless rulers are waiting for a new disaster to happen,” he said, adding: “We are afraid that if the problems of Karachi are not resolved this time on a priority basis people will start blaming [state] institutions.”

Terming Sindhis his brothers, he said: “We the Mohajirs regard them [Sindhis] as Ansar,” but the Pakistan Peoples Party was following a dirty agenda to fan hatred among the people just to extend its “biased and corrupt rule”.

He said that the PPP was talking about not allowing the division of Sindh, but it had divided Karachi into seven parts on ethnic basis. “The so-called representatives of Mohajirs are taking advantage of the biased politics of the PPP and using the slogan of a new province to hide their corruption,” he said, referring to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s talk of a new province in Sindh.

“They incite Mohajirs against Sindhis. In the interior of Sindh, millions of Mohajirs do not want a new province. The so-called Mohajir leaders chant the slogan of a new province in streets, but they do not even dare to make a single speech in the provincial assembly because they know it well they lack a two-thirds majority,” he said.

Talking about the Baldia Town factory fire case in which an antiterrorism court had sentenced to death two men and gave life term to four others, Mr Kamal said that the judgement had strengthened the narrative of the PSP.

He said that the court relied upon the testimony of an eyewitness who was allegedly a drug addict, which is totally unfair and cruel.

He said that those convicted of the crime were not the actual killers. “Four guards of the factory, who had been employees of the Bhaila brothers [the owners of the factory] for years, were made facilitators rather than witnesses in order to give benefit to real culprits.”

He said that the factory owners themselves were “guilty” and they remained behind bars for six months. He said no CCTV footage of the Baldia tragedy was presented in court despite the fact that all the cameras remained intact in the fire.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2020