Federal Minister and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Mustafa Kamal on Saturday announced that his party had decided to launch street demonstrations against what he described as the Sindh government's "systematic injustice" towards Karachi and other urban centres, while renewing his demand for the creation of new provinces and greater devolution of powers. Addressing a press conference in Karachi, Kamal said MQM-P had exhausted all constitutional and democratic avenues to highlight the city's issues but its demands had fallen on deaf ears. "We have used all democratic tools at hand.
We spoke on the assembly floor and presented constitutional amendments, but they did not agree to our demands. Now we will take this protest to the streets," he declared. Rejecting allegations of separatism, Kamal said MQM-P's demand for new provinces was based entirely on constitutional rights.
"Our party does not have a separatist agenda like those operating in Balochistan. We seek new provinces under the provisions of the Constitution," he said. Calling his campaign a fight against injustice rather than a political stunt, Kamal said the "new MQM" would present its case through facts, figures and constitutional arguments instead of confrontational politics.
"There will be no escape from this. We will fight and win this argument," he said. The minister argued that Karachi had been denied its due financial share despite being Pakistan's economic backbone.
He claimed that Karachi contributed nearly 50% to the federal revenue and generated about 95% of Sindh's revenue, yet had received only Rs680 billion out of Rs22,000 billion earmarked for the city over the past 18 years. "Karachi is a victim of injustice, and this is also an injustice to Pakistan," he said. Kamal recalled that before 2010, the federal government directly funded Karachi under tax collection compensation and that until the Seventh National Finance Commission (NFC) Award, the city received one-sixth of the General Sales Tax (GST) collected by it.
Read: MQM-P renews key demands after PM meeting He alleged that after 2010, the Sindh government withheld federal funds meant for Karachi and called for restoring the previous funding formula, which, according to him, would enable the city to receive around Rs270 billion annually from the federal government. “Had the earlier arrangement remained in place, …
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