KARACHI: Federal Minister for Health and MQM-Pakistan leader Syed Mustafa Kamal announced on Saturday that the party had decided to take to the streets to demand Karachi’s rights, accusing the Sindh government of depriving the city of its due share of funds for 18 years.
Addressing a press conference in Bahadurabad, Kamal said Karachi contributed more than 50% of Pakistan’s total revenue and over 95% of Sindh’s income, yet the city had received only Rs680 billion out of Rs22,000 billion over the past 18 years — a mere 3% of the total.
He said Karachi should have received Rs2,000 billion during this period, and the shortfall had deprived the city of roads, schools and hospitals.
“If Karachi had received its rightful share, there would have been prosperity here,” he said. “We are not making an emotional speech — we are talking numbers.”
He said the federal government used to give Karachi direct funds until 2010, but the Sindh government had since been receiving money from the federation without passing it on to Karachi.
“The Sindh government is not allowing Karachi to play its role for Pakistan,” he said.
Kamal launched a scathing attack on the PPP-led Sindh government, listing a litany of “governance failures” across the province. He said that thousands of schools had no washrooms — including girls’ schools — and children were dying after falling into open gutters.
Kamal said MQM-P believed in Pakistan’s Constitution and democracy, adding that the party wanted changes through legal and constitutional means.
He said the money allegedly looted from Sindh’s people was being transferred to Dubai, contributing to rising property prices there.
Referring to Karachi’s past, Kamal said, “We are the people who created Pakistan and helped run it.” He also claimed that MQM had ended the influence of India’s intelligence agency RAW in the city.
He said more children in Sindh were dying from dog bites than anywhere else in the country.
“The world is going to the moon — our children are dying in gutters,” he said, comparing Sindh’s situation with other cities where air ambulances were being introduced while Sindh was launching bicycle ambulances.
He said Lahore had gone 50 years ahead of Karachi — something he said made him happy for Lahore since it was also part of Pakistan — but blamed the Sindh government for holding Karachi back.
He said a whole generation had grown up without seeing water in taps and had been denied jobs even under the quota system.
He also raised the case of 18 mothers in Khairpur whose children had been abducted and who were beaten with batons when they came out to protest, saying no one was listening to them. He said looted money from Sindh’s people had been invested in Dubai, driving up property prices there.
Kamal said the 18th Amendment had never been implemented in its true spirit, and that the devolution of powers to the grassroots level would be pursued through constitutional and legal means.
He declared that the creation of new administrative provinces had become inevitable, and that Pakistan could no longer be run under the existing framework of a federation with four large provinces.
“We have done parliamentary politics, we have presented amendments — now we will come to the streets and speak,” he said, adding that the Constitution gave MQM-P the right to take to the streets for their rights. He said the party would not abandon its people and would pursue all constitutional methods available.
“PPP’s government is oppressing us — they do not give us drinking water, they do not give our children schools,” he said. “We will no longer remain silent.”
