HYDERABAD: Estranged leader of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Dr Farooq Sattar has said that MQM-P is solely responsible for the destruction being wrought in Karachi and Hyderabad and advised Sindh chief minister and minister for local government to file a review petition in Supreme Court against the court order to pull down all illegal structures.

He said at a workers’ gathering at a private marriage hall here on Saturday that if the government went for the review he would support the move. Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar was destroying the city by unfairly razing to ground houses and shops in the name of removal of encroachments though people had given him mandate to develop the metropolis, he said.

He said that he appreciated provincial Minister Saeed Ghani for his “bold” stand on the court order and said the ministers and officers concerned who allowed the spread of encroachments over the years should also be brought to book and awarded punishment.

Dr Sattar said the ongoing anti-encroachment drive had so far deprived over 100,000 families of livelihood and shelter and made paupers about 800,000 people who used to give alms to others.

He urged media to form a commission to conduct accountability of all current and former MQM-P leaders, including Amir Khan, Kanwar Naveed Jameel, Anis Qaimkhani, Mustafa Kamal, Dr Farooq Sattar, Waseem Akhtar, Waseem Hussain and MNAs and MPAs, drag them into workers’ court and ask them to declare their assets.

He said that he would bring together all MQM groups as well as nationalists, political and scholarly figures and form a Muttahida Qaumi Forum to develop consensus over public issues and their solutions.

“I’ll announce formation of Muttahida Qaumi Forum or syndicate or council soon and I want to form this forum to revive sentiments of 1986, not the MQM of 1986,” he said.

He advised Prime Minister Imran Khan to convene an all-party conference (APC) to resolve all national issues including economy.

He said that he agreed with Chief Justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khosa’s observation in which he stressed the need for formulating a national agenda for strengthening economy, conducting fair accountability and resolving other issues.

He said that instead of special packages, all cities and towns including Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Khairpur, Larkana, Dadu, Sanghar, Nawabshah and others should be given their rightful share in revenue.

“These towns are engines of development as they pay taxes and they must get their due as per size of their respective populations. We do not want alms in the name of special packages. If Karachi pays Rs1,500-2,000 billion, it must get Rs200bn annually for development works and new schemes, while Hyderabad must be given Rs20-Rs25bn, Sukkur, Nawabshah and Larkana must be awarded Rs10bn and rest of cities and towns including Dadu, Jamshoro, Sanghar Shikarpur must be provided Rs5bn,” he said.

Dr Sattar said that if Karachi was given Rs50bn after four years, it would be a meagre amount for the biggest city of the country.

He said the federal government should decide about IMF sooner and not later. It should have been decided in August to pull the country out of economic crisis.

Mini-budget was not a solution to financial problems of businesspeople and common man; the government needed to give special incentives to industries and businesspeople immediately “but it seems that rulers have plucked unripe fruits”, he said.

He said that killers of former MNA Ali Raza Abidi had not yet been arrested and missing workers too had not been released, which was sad. If administrative units were formed in the country, two units should be made in Sindh, he said.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2019