HYDERABAD: Pak Sar­za­meen Party chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal has said that today’s public meeting of his party in the Pucca Qila ground has buried the myth that Mohajirs and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement of Altaf Hussain are inseparable. “This narrative was used to scare the establishment ... as if the MQM is done away with, Mohajirs will opt for a revolt”, he said.

He was addressing the first ever PSP public meeting in Pucca Qila ground on Friday evening. PSP senior vice-chairman Anis Ahmed Advocate, vice-chairman Ashfaq Mangi, Dr Saghir Ahmed, Atta Kurd, Iftikhar Randhawa and others also spoke.

“You have rejected this narrative that has been sold over the last 30 years to the establishment, governments and intellectuals. These stakeholders were made to believe that Urdu-speaking people cannot be separated from the MQM or Altaf Hussain regardless of the fact how corrupt their leadership is or even if it is working for [the Indian intelligence agency] RAW”, said Mr Kamal.

Then came Aug 22, when followers of Altaf Hussain staged a drama to sell this narrative again, he said, and noted that the establishment, analysts and government bought it in spite of the fact that he [Mr Kamal] had been telling them that Mohajirs were an educated nation whose forefathers gave sacrifices of two million people.

He said he had trust in this community and this trust was manifested in [the strength of] this gathering.

“I feel proud today. You have made it clear to them that you are educated, you believe in harmony and civilised attitude; and you have buried that narrative,” he said.

The PSP chief said Mohajirs had proved that they were with the Pakistani flag and those who considered them ‘insects’ should mend their ways. Another lie associated with the Urdu-speaking people was that they wanted to separate urban areas from Sindh. “The Urdu-speaking people have buried this lie as well by hosting different communities here in this ground,” he said.

He repeated his earlier observations that today 350,000 newborns would die from malnutrition and there was stunted growth among children but nobody cared about it. He said he did not want to become a leader of Kashmir but to be leader of those dying newborns. “Ten million children face stunting and we have become accustomed to observing anniversaries. No one knows that the National Accountability Bureau really curbs corruption. Political leadership is afraid of holding a census in the country and in the absence of realistic statistics of population, one could not expect proper planning for development. He said that it was the apex court that got the local government elections held.

According to him, Karachi is among the 10 cities where people do not want to live. “Your watchmen [leaders] have themselves become dacoits,” he remarked. He said that 2017 would mark the year of people getting their rights because he would not wait until 2018. He said he did not believe in intrigues but he would not let people die silently either. Cities and their streets would give judgements in favour of people because the PSP would stage protests on people’s issues, he added.

Mr Kamal urged people to surround their elected representatives as well as chairmen of union committees because nobody was going to stop them from holding such protests.

“Now you [Mohajirs] do not have to send eight per cent of commission to London as the fee of ‘Bhai’s’ lawyers or for his lobbying,” he said.

When people would start protesting under the aegis of the PSP, the very parliamentarians whose resignations were being demanded [by Altaf Hussain] would certainly do that. He announced that a similar ‘Awami adalat’ in Karachi on Jan 29 would be held, which would prove to be the last nail in the coffin of ‘mafaad parast’ elements (vested interests).

The PSP chief urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to redress grievances of Sindh instead of “mortgaging” it. PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari should serve people if he wanted to become premier, he said, and regretted a statement made by the Sindh chief minister in the provincial assembly that 19,000 jobs were to be given to PPP activists alone.

Government should redefine its priorities because no one was going to be their partner in crime now. The Urdu- and Sindh-speaking people of this province must believe in coexistence and protect rights of one another, he said.

Mr Kamal said that the Urdu-speaking community was justified in complaining that no one from the community could become a chief minister “but it does not mean they should become agents of RAW”.

He urged PSP activists to befriend activists of other political parties including the MQM, Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz and other factions of the Jeay Sindh Tehreek.

Mr Kamal also urged the prime minister to establish an international-level public sector university and a 200-bed hospital with all medical facilities in Hyderabad. Regarding powers for LG representatives, he argued that if mayors claimed they were without powers, then why did they not resign?

PSP president Anis Qaimkhani told the audience that opponents of his party were shivering after seeing a sea of people here in this ground. He said mayors of Karachi and Hyderabad and [MQM] parliamentarians should mend their ways. Otherwise, people would hold them accountable, he warned.

Published in Dawn December 24th, 2016