HYDERABAD: Pakistan Peo­ples Party MNA Shazia Marri has urged the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan to avoid fanning flames of hatred by resurrecting the demand for a separate province and advised both Pak Sar­zameen Party (PSP) and MQM-P to put aside their differences and turn attention to serving the people.

MQM founder Altaf Hussain and his companions were already facing consequences of the politics of hate and if anyone else tried to revive his politics, he too would definitely fail, she said.

She was speaking to journalists after a programme ‘Yes I Do! Review and Reflection Forum & Kiran Network Launch’ organised by the Sindh Agriculture Forestry Workers Coordinating Orga­nisation (Safwco) and Rutgers at a local hotel on Saturday. 

She condemned MQM-P chief Dr Farooq Sattar’s resurrecting the demand for separate province and said that it was wrong to fan flames of hatred instead of promoting brotherhood and harmony in the province.

She said the country could no more afford politics of hatred. It was responsibility of governments to resolve people’s issues and never allow voices calling for hate to find appeal among people, she said.

Ms Marri said that Dr Sattar did raise important questions about keeping assets beyond one’s means, an issue which had become very important nowadays as PML-N president and disqualified premier Nawaz Sharif too was facing such questions in the Supreme Court and National Accountability Court, she said.

She said the two parties’ press conferences were just producing material for TV talk shows. Politicians must have some degree of awareness about burning issues of the country like energy crisis, unemployment, poverty, underage marriages etc. “We should put aside our differences and work hard for the development of the country and nation,” she said.

She said that PPP had always striven hard to promote stability and prosperity in the country. PML-N government had never made a serious effort to understand and resolve issues of provinces and Mr Sharif appeared to have serious objections to the 18th Amendment, she said.

Commenting on Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman, Ms Marri said that Imran Khan refused to grow up. He was an imprudent politician and the country had to suffer a great deal because of him, she said.

She said that she sympathised with voters and supporters of Mr Khan. “We should show political adolescence now,” she said.

Earlier, speaking at the programme, Ms Marri praised the participants for creating awareness about underage marriages, education and other issues.

She said that she was married off at the age of 15 but her case was a result of blind practice of customs instead of poverty. She had asked her daughter to get education first and then get married as marriage was an institution, which consumed most of one’s time, she said.

She said that if there were strong women, there would be strong mothers; if there were strong mothers, there would be strong nation. Underage marriage caused physical and psychological problems for both girls and boys. “I am a survivor not a victim,” she said.

Mudassir Iqbal, secretary of women development, said that Sindh Assembly was the first among all provincial assemblies to pass the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act, 2013, to stop underage marriages.

Safwco founder and president Suleman G. Abro said that adolescent girls and boys enjoyed their health, rights and achieved full potential when they were free from all forms of child marriage and teenage pregnancies.

Rutgers country director Dr Rubina Ali stressed the need for spreading awareness about legislation against underage marriage among teachers, police, religious clerics, Nikah khwan, parents and others to achieve targeted results.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2017