HYDERABAD: Mutta­hida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s coordination committee member Senator Faisal Sabzwari has said that after Karachi, Hyderabad is an important city of Sindh and a stronghold of his party.

Speaking at a press conference at the party’s district office late on Monday evening, he said peaceful politics had been witnessed in this city but a few days back, dozens of people attacked MQM-P’s office and tore apart its flags and election symbol. “Our activists did not lose patience because we have endured torture and violence in the past as well,” he said.

Senator Sabzwari said MQM-P adhered to politics of non-violence. “We do not have arms and ammunition, but we have power of our workers. Our activists cannot be intimidated and they would not be destroying peace on being incited by anyone.” he said.

He said it appeared that the attackers were acting like “B-team of PPP” and that was why their FIR was not being registered, although the Sindh police were answerable to the provincial government.

Explaining his party’s position vis-a-vis establishment of a university in Hyderabad, Senator Sabzwari admitted that MQM could not get the plan materialised while despite having 25 MNAs and 51 MPAs in the past. “The party [PPP] ruling over Sindh for long had been creating hurdles in the establishment of a university in Hyderabad; land was not being allotted for it; this clearly reflects its [ruling party’s] biased attitude,” he said.

He said that since Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s period, urban areas had been undercounted in every population census. “But now we got it accepted by the federal government that a fraud census was held [in 2017],” he said, adding that now fresh census would be conducted before the 2023 general elections. Whenever there would be a fair census, Sindh’s chief minister would come from an urban area, he predicted.

The senator said that Karachi had witnessed 150mm of rain last year but only 32mm of rainfall a couple of days back exposed the provincial government’s efficiency. He said that problems of Karachi could not be resolved by appointing a cabinet member as its administrator; they could only be resolved through local government representatives. He noted that the entire staff of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board including its managing director was following the directives of the administrator as he was a cabinet minister. KWSB officials never responded to the [Karachi] mayor in the past. He asserted that running local government institutions was the right of elected representatives.

MNAs Usman Qadri and Salahuddin, MPAs Rashid Khilji and Nasir Qureshi and other MQM-P leaders were present at the press conference.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2021