Country can only move forward through elected representatives: MQM-P

Five years after resetting the party slogan from “Humein Manzil Nahi, Rehnuma Chahye” (We want leader, not destination) to “Humein Rehnuma Nahi, Manzil Chahye” (We want destination, not leader), Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan Convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui urged the party workers on Friday to keep patience as now all roads lead to the destination.

Siddiqui was speaking to an MQM-P women workers convention in Surjani Town’s Khuda Ki Basti as part of party’s public engagement campaign ahead of the general election scheduled for February 8, 2024 which, according to the party, it would win against other political parties vying to represent Karachi in the parliament.

The MQM-P convener congratulated the women workers on organising the event which, in his words, ignited the hope for a better future for the party and its vote bank. He said that the women workers braving the December cold had converged in a large number which signified that a real change was about to come.

He said to the party’s women workers, “In this city, when every neighbourhood was besieged, you took to the streets, endured violence at Regal Chowk, but pushed the oppressive rulers back.” He added, “We have put in our share in bringing revolution. Victory is just 40 days away. Go and tell everyone that this time the election results will be based on votes, not money.” He urged them to come out for their nation and lineage to prevent their votes from being manipulated.

In a reference to the allegations of rigging in the previous elections, he said that this time the elected should be selected so that the country could progress. He vowed that the MQM-P would lead a peaceful struggle that no power would be able to stop. He commented, “Just a little more patience, now all paths lead to the destination.”

The party’s senior deputy convener and former Karachi mayor Syed Mustafa Kamal said the MQM-P was the only option the city residents could vote for in the general election in for betterment of the city. He said the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) spent Rs22 trillion in Sindh during its consecutive governments in the province in the past 15 years, adding that with such funds available, a political rival like the MQM-P could have wiped off the PPP.

Speaking to the convention participants, Kamal said that Surjani Town was disconnected from the rest of Karachi and it was the MQM government which built a bridge over a naddi on an emergency basis to restore the area’s communication with other parts of the city. He admitted that the party could not deliver everything it pledged to the city but claimed that the development work done during his four-year mayoral tenure was above the work done in the past.

Echoing the distress of the Surjani Town residents, specifically women, over basic amenities, such as electricity and gas loadshedding and water shortage, he said a victory was imminent and the government of the oppressor was about to end, referring

to the upcoming general election.

On the issue of missing persons among whom the party claims to have many workers, Kamal said that their political workers were not going missing and they slept peacefully at night in their homes after doing their party work. He added that the Shuhada graveyard in the Yasinabad area had been locked for the past seven years, and more than 700 party workers who had gone missing had returned to their mothers. Referring to the party’s violent past, he said, “We have crossed the sea of fire and blood; the PPP does not hold ground against us.” He added that the women present in the convention had delivered a message that the time for the oppressor was over. He urged the party workers to prepare a list of their family, friends and acquaintances to convince them to vote for the MQM-P in the upcoming polls.

The party’s senior deputy convener and former senator, Nasreen Jalil, said women were the frontline soldiers of the MQM-P. She empathised with the Surjani Town women for facing issues and challenges in the neighbourhood, commenting that they and the party were endeavouring for a better future for their upcoming generations.

She claimed that the MQM-P would bring prosperity in their lives if they voted the party in the 2024 election. She said that the Surjani Town women were very talented but they lacked job opportunities in the area. She advocated for the empowerment of women in all spheres of life.