Senior leaders of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), including Dr Farooq Sattar, Syed Aminul Haque and Senator Khalida Ateeb, warned on Saturday that the party could leave the government benches in the National Assembly if the 18-point agreement between MQM-P and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is not implemented in letter and spirit.
Press Conference at Bahadurabad
Addressing a press conference at the party's Bahadurabad headquarters, they said MQM-P lawmakers sitting on the treasury benches would move to the opposition if the agreement was not honoured. They added that a call for protest against what they described as 'looting and misgovernance' in Karachi could be issued at any time by MQM-P Chairman Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui.
Hardships Faced by Sindh Residents
The leaders said the people of Sindh, particularly Karachi, were facing severe hardship due to multiple unresolved issues, arguing that citizens of all linguistic backgrounds in the city were being deprived of basic rights. They questioned whether responsibility for resolving Karachi's problems rested solely with the provincial government, stressing the need to view the MQM-P–PML-N agreement in its proper context.
Local Government Empowerment
They recalled that MQM-P had filed a petition in 2017, which was later upheld in 2022 by former Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, who ruled that powers must be devolved to local governments under Article 140-A. They said that despite political agreements, the issue of local government empowerment remained unresolved.
Reservations Over Sindh Government
The leaders expressed strong reservations over what they termed continued neglect by the Sindh government and said they had grievances with the PPP leadership, including over implementation of development commitments and governance issues.
Dr Farooq Sattar's Remarks
Dr Farooq Sattar said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who was a witness to the agreement, must intervene immediately to ensure implementation of all 18 clauses. He warned that MQM-P would launch a protest movement if the agreement was not honoured and said that if Karachi residents came onto the streets, it would be difficult to contain them. He said there was no need for constitutional amendments if the spirit of Article 140-A had been incorporated into local government laws.
He added that the agreement also included provisions on quota systems and the formation of a commission on 'fake domiciles,' which, according to him, had not been implemented. He criticised governance in Sindh, asking where Rs25 trillion in provincial funds had been spent over the past 18 years, and cited major infrastructure projects such as the K-IV water scheme, saying its cost had escalated significantly without delivering results.
