PTI leaders blame establishment for MQM reunification bid

KARACHI: Sindh Governor Kamran Khan Tessori’s efforts for the unification of factions of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement drew a bitter reaction from the leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday, who termed the political development in Karachi a conspiracy to destroy the peace of the city.

PTI’s Senior Vice-President Chaudhry Fawad Hussain tweeted that the establishment once again wants to make its own party in Karachi. “The city of Karachi was the city of lights. Then the establishment thought that there should be a party of its own. The MQM was created by gathering all the goons. The game of fire and blood was played for decades. It hardly ended. Now some forces again try to collect a pile of gunpowder to stop the way of the PTI and make celebrations in the city.”

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s parliamentary party leader in the Sindh Assembly Khurram Sher Zaman and Sindh opposition leader Haleem Adil Sheikh said that the Governor of Sindh, Kamran Tessori, has turned the Governor House into a tea dhaba (shop), where he, in violation of his constitutional responsibility and duties, is busy in brokering to merge the Muttahida factions.

They said that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan has become a relic of the past but Tessori wants the rebirth of a dead party which is almost impossible. “The existence of MQM in Karachi has become a relic of the past,” said Zaman, adding that the recent meetings in the Governor House are nothing but a political drama.

In his statement, Zaman said that the MQM caused huge damage to Karachi in the past, adding that the party had made the city a living hell and everyone knows about those crimes of the MQM.

He said that Farooq Sattar himself has been asking Wasim Akhtar where he spent Karachi’s money, adding that they are the people who used to call their leader a big evil. The people of Karachi have rejected the politics of corpses and extortion, he said.

The PTI leader said that Mohajir community knows that the so-called leaders of the MQM were not their true representatives and the MQM has to understand that the citizens of Karachi are peace-loving and they have already rejected politics of ethnicity.

He said that today the political situation in Karachi without MQM is much better than in the past, adding that Imran Khan resides in the hearts of the people of Karachi. The PTI will wipe out all these political parties in the coming elections, he said.

Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh, in reaction to the Sindh Governor’s statement, said that the governor of Sindh has made the Governor House a tea dhaba (shop). “Governor House is the property of the state and not a sector or unit office of any political party,” said Sheikh.

He said that the Sindh governor is more focused on uplifting his acting skills than performing his constitutional duties, adding that in the past too, the same party used the Governor House against the citizens of Karachi.

He said that Tessori is trying to sell rejected people of Karachi in new packaging, adding that the city of Karachi will never accept Altaf Hussain and his successors. Karachi has given its mandate to Imran Khan and they will vote for the PTI in the future too, he said.

Meanwhile, Tessori, during his visit to Sehwan on Friday, remarked that he never stated that he didn’t have any authority as a governor. He added that he had all powers and was trying to bridge the gap between the political stakeholders. He said that despite passage of 75 years of independence, cities still present the look of villages, and the people were deprived of basic facilities, such as gas and electricity.