Daily Times

KARACHI: A fight broke out in the city district office on Friday when a delegation of parliamentarians led by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) MNA Faheem Khan went to city district office to complain about the issue of cleanliness in Korangi.

Reportedly, the PTI representatives barged into the office and showed relevant officials photos of trash piling up in district on their phones. A yelling match ensued in the office afterwards over the issue.

Following the incident, District Municipal Corporation (DMC) Chairman Nayyer Raza who is affiliated with Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) wrote a letter to Rangers complaining about the conduct of PTI lawmakers. In his letter, he claimed that PTI officials had barged into his office without permission.

PTI MNA Faheem Khan, on the other hand, claimed that DMC vice chairperson Ahmer Ahmed mistreated him and his delegation. “The vice chairperson of DC office told us that we could not enter the office. When some people from my delegation told him that I was the MNA from Korangi, he responded by saying he did not know any MNA,” he claimed. “People trust us and we don’t want to go back on our pledges to them,” he declared.

PTI legislator Faheem Khan further said that PTI was not discriminating against any political party. “Despite the fact that MQM-P won only 6 National Assembly (NA) seats, we still gave them two federal ministries unlike Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in its last tenure,” he said, adding that MQM-P had held majority of seats in Karachi and Hyderabad during PPP’s tenure but it had not been awarded a lot of federal ministries.

On the other hand, MQM-P senior leader Syed Aminul Haque said that the MQM-P had tried PPP and it did nothing so now it was trying to empower the local government through a coalition with the PTI. “Forming a coalition with PTI is a step in the right direction and we will try our best to empower the local government,” he added. “We decided to patch up with the PTI out of mutual consensus. Everyone in MQM-P was glad when the decision (to form a coalition) was announced), said Syed Aminul Haque.

Faheem Khan got voted into the National Assembly from NA-241 (Korangi Karachi III). Faheem Khan bagged 26,706 votes against MQM-P runner up Muhammad Moeen Amir Pirzada who got 23,873 votes. Before 2018 general elections, NA-241 was considered a MQM-P stronghold since the party had won from this constituency consecutively in 2002, 2008 and 2013 general elections.

Published in Daily Times, September 3^rd 2018.