HYDERABAD: The Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) on Monday announced its plan to hold ‘people’s court’ in the Pucca Qila ground on Dec 23, when the first ever public meeting of the party is to be held.

PSP president Anis Qaimkhani made the announcement while speaking t the media during his visit to the ground. He said the PSP was emerging as one of the big political parties of the country.

The PSP had earlier held its general workers convention in Scouts Ground in Hyderabad on Nov 25. He said that party chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal would be visiting the city again after his return from Lahore.

Mr Qaimkhani said that the developments witnessed after his and Mr Kamal’s return to form the PSP proved that their concept of watan parasti [extreme love for homeland] was widely subscribed.

He claimed that the PSP grew fast to become a big political party as a result of just eight months working. “We will not wait for the 2018 general elections,” he said and vowed to keep raising issues of Hyderabad and Karachi which had become garbage dumps due to neglect by civic agencies and elected representatives. Hyderabad lacked even quality educational institutions, he added.

He expressed his confidence that people would fill the Pucca Qila ground on Dec 23. In reply to a question with reference to a statement given by Karachi mayor Waseem Akhtar that he did not regard the PSP as a political entity, Mr Qaimkhani said that his party did not need a certificate from Mr Akhtar to prove itself a legitimate political entity. “We already have a certificate issued to us by the Election Commission of Pakistan,” he said.

The PSP president recalled that it was the same ground where on Oct 31, 1986 he had addressed a public meeting where the audience was assured of [efforts to get them] their rights. But 30 years on, this did not happen, he added.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2016