HYDERABAD: Sindh Assembly Opposition Leader AliKhurshidihas said nobody is trying to change the territorial boundaries of Sindh, stressing that a ‘division of Sindh’ and a ‘division of the Sindh government’ are two entirely different propositions.
He said the province’s seven divisions were administrative units and nothing more, and that the present model of governance had failed to ensure service delivery from Karachi to Ubauro.
Mr Khurshidi was speaking at a gathering of the city’snotables at a hotelhere on Saturday evening. On Friday night he also addressed gatherings in Unit-11, Latifabad, and Phuleli as part of the MQMP’s campaign for the creation of new administrative units in the country.
Muttahida’s district organiser Zafar Siddiqui and MPAs Rashid Khan, SabirKaimkhani and Nasir Qureshi were also present.
Everyone agreed that the present model had virtually failed and that living conditions had deteriorated, he said, but the question was who would fix things. The MQM had proposed a change in the governance model in 2013 and, had it been heeded, the situation would be different today. Its political opponents, however, had given the proposal ‘a different colour’.
He said the MQM had demanded constitutional protection for local governments through an amendment to Article 140-A. It also wanted the NFC formula to provide for the direct transfer of funds from the federal government to divisions and districts so that elected mayors could set development priorities instead of leaving disbursement to the chief minister’s discretion.
Changing the model of governance without altering the province’s limits was the need of the hour, he said, warning that people would otherwiselose trust in the democratic process.
Mr Khurshidi said the PPPled government had failed to provide basic amenities despite 18 consecutive years in power. Karachi, the provincial capital, was counted among the worst cities in the world, he said, while Hyderabad, the province’s second largest city, resembled Mohenjo Daro.
He quipped that even the ancient site’s streets looked better. He said the MQM was dubbed biased whenever it criticised the government’s performance, and that the government had defended building a road without first removing high-tension poles in Hyderabad as a ‘grand plan’.
He said this state of affairs had continued for 75 years, with political families ruling in the name of democratic parties. Such a model, he said, could not bring qualitative change to people’s lives.
The MQM had sought new administrative units since 2013, he said, and the demandwas part of its manifesto. He accused the ruling party of fomenting ethnic strife and said the MQM had foiled its alleged conspiracy to provoke riots between Sindh’s permanent communities.
It was now up to the people to decide whether they could progress under the present arrangement or must seek new administrative units for their children’s future, he said, adding that they would have to demand such units in practice.
He said the MQM had always stood for the empowerment of local government representatives and wanted better lives for the labourers of Nawabshah and Larkana.
New administrative units, he said, would mark the downfall of the ruling party. The MQM would hold a big programme in Karachi in the last week of this month, he said, and Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui would hold a similar gathering in Hyderabad afterwards.
He urged people to maintain unity in their ranks, saying that opponents had always conspired to break the MQM.