MQM thinks District Central still belongs only to them: Ghani

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) is persisting with its traditional mindset that except them no other political party can work in Karachi’s District Central, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Karachi President Saeed Ghani said while speaking at a press conference on Sunday.

Ghani, who served as the Sindh labour minister in the recent government, said that peaceful elections cannot be held if attacks continue to occur on the offices of the contesting political parties in Karachi.

He asked the relevant authorities to conduct an inquiry to determine who gave the directions to perpetrate the recent attack on the PPP’s office in the city.

He predicted that the PPP would emerge as the winning political party in Karachi in the February 8 general elections. He stressed that all the contesting parties are under an obligation to obey the code of conduct for next month’s polls.

He blamed activists of the MQM-P for being involved in the attack on the PPP’s office in Karachi the previous night. He said that the law and order situation of the city would not remain peaceful if attacks on the offices of political parties continue to occur in such a brazen manner.

He claimed that senior MQM-P leader and former city mayor Syed Mustafa Kamal’s address to the media at a recent press conference contained threats against his political opponents. Ghani said the PPP does not want to take the law into their own hands because they want to conduct the election campaign of the party through peaceful political means.

“The PPP’s offices are present in every constituency and UC in Karachi. We are advising our activists to exercise restraint, but our patience should not be tested,” he warned.

“I fail to understand whether the polls are being contested by the MQM or the PSP [Pak Sarzameen Party] because the MQM seems to be under occupation of the PSP while their leader Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui seems helpless,” he pointed out. He claimed that Kamal has ended the MQM.

He said that everyone witnessed the MQM’s performance in the cantonment polls and the by-elections in Karachi, and their decision to boycott the last local government elections in the city. “Mustafa Kamal can daydream about any scenario, but the reality is that MQM-Pakistan deserves mercy due to its current state.”

The PPP leader said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) does not want elections in the country, which is why former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has gone into seclusion.

Ghani said that only PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has been genuinely conducting an election campaign for his party. He said the PML-N is upset in the present scenario and wants the polls in the country to be delayed.

‘MQM-P to lose’

Speaking at a separate press conference at the Peoples Secretariat, PPP Sindh General Secretary Senator Waqar Mehdi predicted that the MQM-P would face defeat in the general elections and his party would emerge as the main stakeholder in Karachi’s politics.

On the occasion, a large number of activists and supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) belonging to the National Assembly’s NA-245 and the provincial assembly’s PS-118 constituencies in the city announced their joining the PPP.

Senator Mehdi lamented that the then PTI chairman Imran Khan during his tenure as the prime minister did not fulfil his commitments to the development of Karachi and the welfare of the city’s people.

He claimed that Karachi Mayor Barrister Murtaza Wahab has undertaken development works in all parts of the city without any discrimination. The senator pointed out that the previous city mayor, Waseem Akhtar, failed to deliver and only kept on complaining about his lack of powers.

Mehdi claimed that a PPP office was attacked in the Hyderi Market by MQM activists, saying that a criminal case has been lodged following the incident. The PPP leader also claimed that MQM leaders have sensed that they would be defeated in the upcoming general elections, so they have become afraid of the polls.

He said the PPP would emerge as the majority party in the city after the February 8 elections. He demanded that the caretaker chief minister order the police to arrest the miscreants involved in the attack on the PPP’s office in Karachi.