MQM warns of mock assembly session over water scarcity

Karachi
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has held the Sindh government responsible for a scarcity of water in Karachi and warned of a mock assembly session in protest if the crisis deepens and water is not distributed equally.
Senior MQM leader Dr Farooq Sattar told a press conference at the Khursheed Begum Hall on Wednesday that his party was keeping enraged citizens under control.
He criticised Local Government Minister Sharjeel Memon for failing to resolve the issue, which, he said had taken a serious turn.
Sattar, who is also a member of the National Assembly, said the Karachiites would have heaved a sigh of relief if the minister had focused on addressing the water crisis instead bulldosing marriage lawns.
He termed the water scarcity artificial and a punishment to the people of the city for supporting the MQM.
As Karachi was a multi-nation and multi-ethnic city, riots could erupt if the situation was not normalised, he cautioned.
If the managing director of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board was working on a political agenda, it meant that the PPP government was creating an artificial water crisis on the political grounds, he maintained.
Sattar said the MQM would fully support the people if they came out onto the streets in protest.
A Karbala-like situation had emerged in the city and the MQM had no authority to control the issue as it was sitting on the opposition benches, he added.
He complained that the government had never taken the Muttahida on board about the issue. He said Karachi needed 1,000 million gallons on a daily basis but it was getting only 520 million gallons.
For the last seven years the PPP had been in the government and the MQM had been raising the issue, but the ruling party had not paid any heed to “our grievances”, the lawmaker said.
The MQM had already submitted motions on the water issue, but the government had failed to take them up, he said, adding that if the crisis persisted “we will be forced to stop our legislators from attending the assembly session” and would hold a mock assembly outside it.