Daily Times

HYDERABAD: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Farooq Sattar has once again threatened to demand division of Sindh if powers were not delegated to local bodies under the Article 140-A of the constitution.

Addressing a Meet the Press at the Hyderabad Press Club here on Saturday, he said that the local bodies have been deprived of power they had in the past. Without financial and administrative powers, the local bodies cannot deliver, he pointed out.

He said there would be no need of financial help from China if only sales tax worth Rs 70 billion was given to mayors of Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sukkur and Larkana, and mayors and chairmen of municipal committees in Sindh. But the Sindh government was being run by landlords who further pushed backward the people of Sindh, he said.

He said that his party has three options for getting the rights of people back from the government, including through dialogue, knocking doors of judiciary and then third option will be to go to the people. Sattar said that the corruption has damaged the country and predicted that if no change was brought, then even after the 2018 elections the situation would remain the same.

He asked the people of Sindh that they should come onto the roads and streets for peaceful protests. He demanded consultation with the MQM-P for appointment of a new Sindh governor. He made it clear that the vote bank of MQM-P would never be distributed.

The party was, is and shall remain one contesting elections under its symbol of the kite. He announced the holding a big public meeting in Hyderabad on February 17.