Provinces not motherland, can be divided: Khalid Maqbool

Those who consider creating new provinces an act of treason are themselves traitors as the provinces are merely administrative units of the country that should not be treated like the indivisible motherland.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan Convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui made these remarks on Sunday while talking to media persons after attending a programme in Liaquatabad to mark the death anniversary of Shuhada-e-Urdu.

He said the one who treated a province like an indivisible entity unduly granted the status of the motherland to the province. “Only Pakistan is the motherland,” he said.

Dr Siddiqui was of the view that provinces were merely administrative units whose numbers should be increased in accordance with the increase in the population and national needs. “Doing so is well in accordance with the national duties and spirit of patriotism,” he said.

Criticising the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), he said all the powers and resources of Karachi had been with a political party for the past 15 years that never had the genuine mandate of the residents of city for 50 years.

“This political party doesn’t represent the people of Karachi. The same party doesn’t have any authority over the city no matter the new mayor belongs to it,” said the MQM-P chief without explicitly naming the PPP.

He added that the Jamaat-e-Islami and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf should be questioned about their decision to contest the recent local government elections in the city even after the unfair delimitations of some 100 of its union committees.

Dr Siddiqui also on the occasion paid homage to Madar-e-Millat Fatima Jinnah on the occasion of her death anniversary. He stated that after the creation of Pakistan, she united then eastern and western wings of Pakistan by her selfless struggle against the dictatorial regime and for the revival of democracy.

A day earlier on Saturday, MQM-P Senior Deputy Convener Syed Mustafa Kamal also made similar remarks about the need for new provinces in the country.

Speaking to media persons, he welcomed the suggestion recently put forward by Senate Deputy Chairman Mirza Muhammad Afridi and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to form new provinces in the country.

The prosperity and longevity of Pakistan could be achieved by forming new provinces, he remarked.

“It is high time that the suggestion given by the Senate deputy chairman and other political leaders to form new provinces in the country should be considered seriously as this option also provides the ultimate solution to the problems in urban Sindh,” said Kamal.

He said the water supply, sewerage and road infrastructure in the urban parts of Sindh had been in a shambles due to sheer neglect by the Sindh government of the PPP.

The MQM-P leader said the youth of urban Sindh had been going through agony due to the biased conduct of the ruling PPP. He said the job seekers from urban Sindh were deprived of government jobs both on merit and the quota reserved for them.

He alleged that the quota in government jobs reserved for candidates from urban Sindh was filled by recruiting non-native applicants. This unfair trend in the recruitment drive had lately been extended to the civic and municipal agencies of Karachi whose vacancies were being filled by hiring non-natives while the local candidates were deprived of these jobs, Kamal added. The MQM-P leader remarked that such biased policies of the ruling PPP had harmed the interests of the entire Pakistan as they had weakened the very foundations of the country.

He maintained that the residents of Sindh could no longer afford the rule of anti-state and biased PPP. He further alleged that the entire Sindh had been ruined due to the absolute rule of the PPP in the province for more than a decade.