MQM-P candidates step down in favour of PML-N in AJK elections

In an important development ahead of the general elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) to be held on Monday, the MQM-P on Saturday said that all its candidates were stepping down in favour of the PML-N candidates, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Saima Fareed, one of the MQM-P candidates, told City 21 that she had been running the election campaign for the last three months. “But now, I will comply with the party’s instructions,” she said, and expressed the hope that the PML-N would emerge triumphant in the elections.

Earlier on Saturday, addressing a joint press conference with the PML-N leaders at the MQM-P’s headquarters in Bahadurabad, Karachi, the party leader Farooq Sattar said that governorship of Sindh was a constitutional post, which belonged to the MQM-P.

Speaking on the occasion, MQM-P leader and Federal Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal said that the party had decided that now it would not remain silent and would come out on roads to demand rights for the people of Karachi. “Karachi generates revenues not only for Sindh, but for the entire country. But the city is not given its rights,” he lamented.

He said that Lahore was way ahead of Karachi in terms of development in all spheres of life.

Kamal said that Sindh received Rs22,000 billion from the Center during the last 18 years. “However, the port city’s share in the amount remained limited to Rs680 billion only,” he elaborated.

The minister said that Karachi generated 95 per cent of revenues for Sindh, and over 50 per cent for the country. “The provincial government receives huge amount of money from the federal government, but does not pass these funds on to the port city,” he said, adding that injustice was being done to the city.

Bear this thing in mind, he went on to say, that it was Karachi, not the IMF, that could pull the country out of crises. 

Reporter: Shoaib Mukhtar