PPP ‘falls’ to MQM demands on delimitations
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Wednesday expressed its willingness to review the local government constituencies as per the demands of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).
A notification is likely to be issued in the next two days.
A PPP delegation met with MQM leaders at the latter’s Bahadurabad office on Wednesday for the second round of talks between the two allied parties on the issue of delimitations.
MQM leader Mustafa Kamal said if their demands are not met, then Karachi’s Fawara Chowk is not too far for staging a protest.
He further said various issues were discussed with the PPP delegation that accepted the MQM’s position.
He believed Wednesday’s talks would lead to a resolution of their issues.
Sindh Local Government Minister Nasir Hussain Shah said the meeting was held on the issue of increasing union councils in Karachi.
He said it was a prerogative of the Sindh government to write a letter to the election commission. But the commission did not accept the provincial government’s stance and held local government elections.
The PPP delegation, led by Nasir Shah, included Sohail Anwar Sial, Murtaza Wahab and Saeed Ghani, while MQM Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Farooq Sattar, Mustafa Kamal, Faisal Sabzwari, Khawaja Izharul Hasan and others were present from the other side.
Earlier, the MQM-P had postponed its protest call amid the Pakistan Navy’s multinational peace drills in the Arabian Sea.
The local bodies elections were held in Karachi despite the MQM-P’s boycott, following which the PPP and Jamaat-e-Isalmi are in talks to decide about the next mayor of the port city.
