MQM-P to respond to PPP challenge with May 5 Liaquatabad rally

Staff Reporter

Karachi

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s (MQM-P) Bahadurabad group on Tuesday lashed out at the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) as a heated war of words between the two parties escalated further after the latter held a rally in Karachi’s Liaquatabad area – traditionally an MQM stronghold – on Sunday.
During his speech on April 29, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, whose party rules the province, held the MQM – the party with control over the local government – responsible for “all of Karachi’s woes” and had promised the metropolis would now be ruled by those “born and raised” in the provincial capital. Although Bilawal was born in Karachi, he was brought up in the United Kingdom after his mother and former PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto left the country in self-imposed exile.
MQM-P Bahadurabad Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, addressing a press conference in Karachi, hit out at Bilawal, saying: “You have done nothing but spread hatred and violence in the city. The people recognise you very well.” “You held a rally in Liaquatabad, which is our [MQM’s] centre, knowing that you will not be harmed. Why don’t you hold such a rally in Lyari?” Siddiqui challenged the PPP, asking if Bilawal had anything to say about the notorious Lyari gang wars, which he alleged were engineered by the PPP’s “militant wings”.
Siddiqui announced that the MQM would respond to Bilawal’s onslaught at FC’s Tanki Ground in Liaquatabad on May 5, the venue where the PPP held its rally over the weekend. The MQM-P Bahadurabad leader invited all political parties in Karachi, including the Farooq Sattar-led MQM-P PIB rival faction, to come together at the rally in order to reclaim the city.
“Karachi only progressed when muhajirs ruled the city,” Siddiqui claimed. Siddiqui also raised questions over Bilawal’s “legitimacy as PPP’s chairman” by pointing out that the party had a dynastic structure. Siddiqui also addressed MQM’s breakup with the party’s founder, saying that his party members had “stood by their leader through thick and thin” but abandoned him in the national interest.

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