Islamabad, Pakistan – Mustafa Kamal, leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and the federal health minister, announced on Saturday that his party has decided to take to the streets in protest against what he described as the ongoing “injustice and marginalization” suffered by Karachi and its residents at the hands of the provincial government. This decisive announcement came during a press conference held by Kamal in the economic capital, Karachi, where he launched a scathing attack on the Sindh provincial government’s indifference towards the city and the basic needs of its citizens. He emphasized that the party will not remain silent after exhausting all parliamentary and constitutional avenues.
Exhausting constitutional means and resorting to the street
Kamal explained, “The MQM-P movement has decided that it will no longer remain silent. We will pursue all means stipulated in the constitution. We spoke in the councils, but they did not agree. We submitted a constitutional amendment, but they rejected it as well. Now, we will use the streets while adhering to the law and the constitution. We will take to the streets with the people,” stressing that the law and the constitution grant them the full right to peaceful protest, given that the country has reached a stage where it cannot continue with the current mechanism.
The political figure criticized the mechanism for distributing federal funds among the provinces, noting that the Union had allocated 8.4 trillion rupees, of which Sindh alone received about 2.2 trillion rupees, claiming that these funds remain confined to the Prime Minister’s residence and do not reach Karachi, Hyderabad, or Sukkur, in the absence of any real system for disbursing allocations to local councils.
Accusations of service shortcomings and deteriorating infrastructure
During the conference, Kamal accused the Sindh government of preventing Karachi from playing its pivotal role in driving the country’s economic growth, claiming that the provincial administration had utterly failed to provide basic civic services. He pointed out that the city lacked sufficient drinking water, safe sewage systems, and adequate schools, noting that the province had the highest rates of stunting and school dropout, as well as frequent tragic incidents such as stray dog bites and children falling into open sewers.
The minister compared the reality of Karachi with the development taking place in other cities in the country, explaining that other cities are discussing advanced projects such as trains, subways and air ambulances, while Karachi relies on motorcycle ambulances, and warning at the end of his speech that the party’s silence does not mean weakness, and stressing the continuation of the demand to establish new administrative provinces and activate the eighteenth amendment in a fair manner that guarantees the rights of all cities.
