Over 750 activists desert their parties to swell PSP ranks

A large number of activists among 1,001 people have deserted their respective political parties to swell the ranks of the former Karachi mayor Syed Mustafa Kamal-led Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP).

The announcement to this effect was made at an event held at the PSP headquarters, namely the Pakistan House, in the PECHS neighbourhood of the city in the presence of all those who had pledged allegiance to Kamal’s party.

Talking to the media, the party chief welcomed the political activists to the PSP. He said that it was the victory of his ideology that had been garnering support from people belonging to different ethnic backgrounds, including Mohajirs, Sindhis, Pashtuns, Baloch and Punjabis.

Referring to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Kamal said that the party could not separate a single street in Liaquatabad in the name of Mohajirs, but that the MQM had been fooling people by making demands for a separate province.

“The MQM has brought Mohajirs out in the narrow streets by doing Mohajir politics. Those who criticise us for not winning seats in the general elections cannot even enter our rooms without our permission,” he added.

The former mayor said the PSP had caused politicking on Sindhi and Mohajir cards to expire once and for all, adding that people of every ethnicity have no other option but the PSP for the resolution of their problems. He pointed out that the real problem facing the government was not that of their incompetence but of their incapability to realise what the real problem facing them actually is.

Kamal said that now the Urdu-speaking community should decide whether it would be a matter of pride for them to receive gratitude and love from Sindhis, Baloch, Pashtuns and Punjabis or to be barred from going out into the streets due to fear of being harmed by other ethnic and sub-nationalist groups.

“When our ancestors arrived in this land after creating Pakistan, Sindhis embraced them wholeheartedly,” he said. “They are our Ansaars today, and we have respect for them.”

He said that the problems faced by the people of Karachi and Hyderabad were the same as those that the rest of the country had been going through. “So why not talk to everyone from Karachi to Kashmore and from Kashmore to Kashmir?”

The PSP chief said Kashmir is being held hostage for the past several months and has been turned into a major jail, adding that the Kashmiris who wish to be buried one day under the flag of Pakistan are looking towards Pakistan for help.

“The government has adopted a way to express solidarity with Kashmiris only by turning off the traffic lights for some time and that too on just Friday,” he said. The government has to go beyond the traditional moral support to Kashmir, he added.

On the occasion, he claimed that some 390 people from the MQM, 180 from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, 111 from the Pakistan Peoples Party, 57 from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, 26 from the Youth Pakistan and over 200 others who did not belong to any political party had joined the PSP.