Islamabad: If the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) decides to take up the demand for a south Sindh province, no one will be able to stand in the way, MQM-P leader Farooq Sattar said on Wednesday.
He was speaking to the media in front of the Parliament house.
Referring to Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah’s comments on the issue, made during an Assembly session on Tuesday, Sattar said Shah had hurt the sentiments of Muhajirs, adding that his party strongly condemned the CM’s speech.
CM Shah had said that he condemned those advocating for a separate province in Sindh. “The leader of the opposition [in Sindh Assembly] sent a paper from 1962 which championed the formation of a separate province. I very strongly oppose such ideas and anybody who still gives it a second thought needs to get rid of it.”
Sattar said that the Sindh chief minister had delivered a hateful speech targeting the entire Mohajir community. He said his party’s workers and sympathisers across the province were riled up but he had instructed them to stay calm and patient.
Taking a jibe at the PPP leader, Sattar said that Karachi’s heatwave seemed to have taken its toll on Shah. Further, the MQM-P leader demanded that Shah should issue an apology within 48 hours and warned that a protest would be held otherwise.
The MQM-P leader said that it was the PPP that sowed the seeds of a Muhajir province in the country with their attitude.
Sattar further said that Shah’s predecessors had opposed the formation of Pakistan.
With the language and quota system, the foundation of Sindh division was laid in 1972 while the lands of Karachi and its resources are being looted, he said.
The issue of a south Sindh province has emerged at a time when a group of lawmakers in Punjab, who have now joined the PTI, have started a campaign for a south Punjab province.
On April 11, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) vice president Shah Mehmood Qureshi had in a tweet expressed his party’s support for a separate province of south Punjab. The tweet came before the lawmakers who defected from the PML-N to form the Junoobi Punjab Sooba Mahaz (JPSM) joined the PTI.
Responding to the campaign for south Punjab, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said on Tuesday that he was surprised by the newly found love for a south Punjab province among a group of legislators who didn’t support public support.
Published in Daily Times, May 24th 2018.
