MQM-P reschedules rally for Karachi’s rights

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s rally earlier announced for Tuesday (September 22) has been rescheduled to Thursday (September 24).

Addressing a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Bahadurabad on Monday, the MQM-P leaders said the party admitted the rights and recognised the identities of every ethnic community, including Pashtuns, Punjabis, Bengalis and Kashmiris, living in the city and, therefore, “they should also attend our rally for achieving their own rights”.

MQM-P convenor Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and other leaders expressed their concerns over the removal of the banners of the party's rally from the city’s various areas. They said if the MQM-P was to be treated as a proscribed outfit, the authorities should openly announce it.

The media was informed that the rally would start from Karimabad and end at the Mazar-e-Quaid. “To rule Karachi is the fundamental right of Karachi’s residents. We demand that the residents of Lahore, Larkana and Peshawar should also be given the right to rule their cities,” Siddiqui said. He said that in the past four decades, Sindh’s urban areas had been given a mere four per cent jobs, instead of forty per cent as per the rural-urban quota.