• No one can wipe out MQM-P, Khalid tells convention
• Resolution passed demanding more women empowerment

KARACHI: Almost a month after the Pakistan Peoples Party organised a public meeting at Nishtar Park, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan on Sunday staged a women-only power show in the historic ground vowing to restore the party’s ‘lost glory’ and ‘regain’ the political ground that it claimed had been ‘snatched’ from the party through ‘political engineering’.

The women convention of the MQM-P resolved to bring more women to the political activism and give them key responsibilities for future leadership roles in the country.

Attended by a large number of women from all across the city, the convention venue was decorated with giant portraits of prominent women of the country including Fatima Jinnah, Fatima Surayya Bajia and Bilqees Edhi.

Clapping, singing party songs and chanting slogans, the participants kept the convention alive that lasted for more than three hours.

In his key address, MQM-P convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddique took the opportunity to give future line of action to the party and boost the morale of workers.

He warned “those forces” who had made efforts to eliminate the party of any such move in future and said that such actions would receive strong reactions from Mohajirs.

He paid rich tribute to women workers of the party whose “great sacrifices” had kept the MQM-P alive in the toughest phase of its history.

“No one can wipe out the MQM-P and Mohajirs,” he vowed to the roaring crowd in the famous ground.

“The next elections, whether national or local bodies elections, would see the rise of MQM-P again. Our women, mothers and sisters are assets of our party. Since they have not given up in hardest of time, the party would rise again under their commitment and guidance.”

He also remembered the missing workers of the party and saluted their families mainly their female members who had not lost their faith in the party despite the greatest sacrifices of their lives.

The MQM-P conveyor though didn’t name any party or individual for ‘conspiracy’ against the party, but claimed that “their time is over” and they would never meet success.

“Pakistan came into being due to Mohajirs and now Mohajirs are struggling for its survival and would never let anyone harm it,” said Dr. Siddiqi.

“We believe in political struggle. We believe in peaceful politics. But no one should consider our principles as our weakness. Through the same strategy we won the verdict from the Supreme Court for empowered local government. Through the same strategy we proved our value to the successive governments and parliamentary process.”

Resolution passed

The convention also passed a resolution presented by senior MQM-P leader Nasreen Jalil that demanded several reforms for women empowerment in the country’s governance system and society.

The convention demanded quota for women in government jobs considering their ratio in the population.

It also demanded an initiative from political parties to field more female candidates in the elections and sought role of Election Commission of Pakistan to ensure maximum participation of women voters in the electoral process.

The resolution urged the state and its institutions for their role for safe recovery of missing political workers for relief of their mothers, wives, sisters and every female member of their families.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2022