MQM-P warns of protest if Centre does not ensure implementation of 2022 agreement with PPP

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) on Saturday warned of issuing a protest call if the Centre did not ensure that the party’s 2022 agreement with the PPP on various provincial issues was implemented.

The MQM-P and PPP had signed an 18-point agreement on March 30, 2022 — just before the two joined hands with other parties to remove PTI’s Imran Khan as the prime minister. The MQM-P’s demands ranged from municipal government structure to future power-sharing formula and recruitment policy in Sindh to local policing system.

Addressing a press conference in Karachi, Farooq Sattar referred to that deal as the “last agreement between the MQM-P and PPP”.

He stressed that his party had not demanded to be included in the provincial government or sought authority over Sindh’s resources.

Sattar claimed that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari held “no meeting despite repeated reminders from the MQM-P” on the agreement to implement a Supreme Court order regarding local governments within one month.

“This was not implemented. This entire agreement was not implemented. This has around 18 points, out of which not even one was implemented,” the MQM-P leader asserted.

Highlighting that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (then-PML-N president), Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Akhtar Mengal and Khalid Hussain Magsi had signed the pact as witnesses, Sattar called for the Centre to take action.

Sattar said: “You (Bilawal) have a direct signature on our rights and the solution of our problems, but the witness of this nikah, this relationship, is mian Shehbaz Sharif, so he [and] the federal government — I am not using the word intervention — but they would have to get involved.

“And these 18 points would have to be implemented; otherwise, the question remains of when and how the MQM-P issues a protest call,” he said, adding that PM Shehbaz must also fulfil his responsibility.

The MQM-P leader stressed that his “SOS call” was not just for Bilawal and President Asif Ali Zardari, but also for the prime minister, whom he termed the “guarantor” of the agreement.

He reiterated that the MQM-P was “giving a final warning” to the federal government and PM Shehbaz.

“You will have to get involved somewhere, or else the MQM-P will begin such a protest movement that no one will be able to bring back the MQM-P, the people of Karachi and those residing in other cities of Sindh,” Sattar said.

He urged the premier to visit Karachi and resolve the matter before “public deprivation, injustice and lack of attention and confidence cross all limits and they take to the streets”.

Sattar said his party was “in contact” with the public regarding a protest movement, adding that the Centre should not interfere later on to stop them.

At one point during his press talk, Sattar said he was not addressing Bilawal as much, but rather “calling on the Centre to fulfil its Constitutional role”.

The MQM-P leader said a referendum should be held under Article 149 of the Constitution, which allows the federal government to issue directives to provinces in certain cases.

Calling for the abolishment of the quota system for government jobs, Sattar said that even the parity of 60:40 for rural/urban Sindh agreed under the pact was not implemented.

Noting that a joint commission on the issue of fake domiciles had not been formed, the MQM-P leader said President Zardari, or even PM Shehbaz if needed, must get involved if Bilawal failed to implement that.

While the PPP and the MQM-P are the ruling PML-N’s allies in the Centre, the MQM-P sits in the opposition in the PPP-led Sindh and criticises the provincial government for its administration of Karachi.

Since the deadly Gul Plaza fire on January 17 sparked a debate over the need for reforms in LGs, the MQM-P has repeatedly called for Karachi to be declared a “federal territory”.

After the MQM-P urged Bilawal to seek resignations from Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab, the top PPP leadership publicly reaffirmed their confidence in the Sindh government and the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC). ...