• Party stages show of strength in the heart of district Central
• Khalid Maqbool calls for creation of new administrative units across country

KARACHI: Heaping scorn on the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), a senior Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader said on Sunday thathis party rejected 18th Amendment to the Constitution and demanded that the historic legislation be further amended to protect financial issues of districts.

“We reject 18th Amendment that the PPP got passed in the name of provincial autonomy. The MQM-Pakistan demands another amendment [in the Constitution] to ensure that funds transferred to the provinces [by the Centre] are fairly distributed to districts,” MQM-P senior deputy convener and former Karachi mayor Syed Mustafa Kamal told a big public meeting in the heart of district Central, Liaquatabad.

It’s the third public meeting organised by the party in the metropolis to mobilise its cadres and initiate a mass contact drive in the wake of upcoming general elections. The first such event was held in Malir, then Orangi Town and the third one was organised at Students Ground in B-1 Area, Liaquatabad.

The event was supposed to begin at 6pm, but most chairs were still vacant in the ground till 8pm. However, a good crowd gathered at the venue later. The participants, including women and children, were carrying tri-coloured MQM-P flags inscribed with the party’s election symbol, ‘kite’, and chanting slogans.

Explaining his opposition to 18th Amendment, Mr Kamal said that before the landmark legislation, the annual budget of Sindh was Rs178 billion and the share of Karachi in it was Rs37bn. “After getting the provincial autonomy, the annual budget of Sindh crossed Rs1 trillion, but Karachi’s share stood at a mere Rs38bn,” he said.

He said that it was necessary to take measures to ensure transfers of funds to Karachi, Larkana and all other cities in a fair manner for which there was a need to further amend 18th Amendment to make the district finance commission award a part of the Constitution.

In a thinly veiled reference to the Altaf Hussain-led MQM, commonly known as MQM-London, he blamed the PPP for joining hands with what he called enemies and alleged that it [PPP] “is hatching a conspiracy and spending money to buy those sitting far from here so that they could issue a boycott call”.

The participants replied in the affirmative when he asked whether they were ready to take to the streets for their rights.

‘We don’t want division of Sindh’

Speaking on the occasion, MQM-P convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said the Sindh government provided only 10pc of its budget to districts. He said that the MQM-P was against ‘feudal democracy’.

“We want creation of administrative units across the country. We consider only Pakistan as dharti maa as no province can be called dharti maa,” he said.

He said the MQM-P did not want division of Sindh. “We want to bridge the gulf between urban and rural areas in the province and we already have given our share of sacrifice for this,” he said.

In his speech, senior MQM-P leader Dr Farooq Sattar demanded that all victims of the enforced disappearance be recovered forthwith.

He said that people of Liaquatabad alone gave more taxes than several big cities.

The then PPP government had done great injustice with Karachi by snatching all municipal powers and budgets, he observed.

MQM-P senior deputy convener Nasreen Jalil also spoke on the occasion.

Earlier, on the appeal of senior MQM-P leader Anis Kaimkhani, the audience observed a moment of silence for the people of Palestine.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2023