Karachiites want financial and administrative autonomy, not packages: PSP chief

Pak Sarzameen Party supremo Syed Mustafa Kamal has said Karachi is not an orphan city and he will take to the streets with the people if the metropolis is not given its due share.

He expressed his views during his visits to various areas of Korangi where he met residents and traders. Party President Anis Kaim Khani and members of the party’s Central Executive Committee and National Council were also present on the occasion.

Kamal said Karachi did not need any help as it had the potential to feed the entire country. “Giving a relief package to Karachi is like snatching a worker’s full month’s salary from him and giving him a box of biryani instead of his wages.”

Discussing the package of Rs1.1 trillion recently announced by Prime Minister Imran Khan, he said: “Karachiites are not demanding mere packages; Karachi wants financial and administrative autonomy.”

He said Karachi’s residents pinned no hope on the Pakistan People Party-led Sindh government. “But when the chief justice of Pakistan and the army chief became active in resolving the problems of Karachi, the people became hopeful.”

However, when the prime minister paid a visit to Karachi for the announcement of the Rs1.1 trillion package, he just read a written paper and went back to the federal capital, Kamal said. “If the grim circumstances of the port city don’t get changed, the people will be disappointed not in the government but in the institutions as well.”

The PSP chief said that if Prime Minister Khan was sincere about Karachi, he should conduct a fresh census to find the exact population of the city. “As long as a proper census is not conducted, nothing would be credible.”

If seats are given in terms of the right population, the chief minister would be elected from urban Sindh, he said. Criticising the Mutahai Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, he said that it was using the slogan of new provinces to hide its corruption. “They do not have a majority in the assembly to form a province, so they will provide arms to the youths. One generation was ruined -- one is in prisons and another is going missing due to the politics of hatred.”