In yet another ‘defection’ from Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) to Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), MQM-P ex-senator Colonel (R) Tahir Mashhadi on Friday announced his decision to join the PPP, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Addressing a press conference in Karachi along with PPP Sindh President Nisar Khuhro and General Secretary Waqar Mehdi, he appealed to the people of Karachi to support PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in building the city. “PPP has developed the city. The party has given health facilities to it,” Mashhadi said, adding, “It is useless talking about Sindhi, Mohajir or rural, urban Sindh divide since whosoever lives in the province is a Sindhi.”

The former senator expressed the hope that more and more people would join the PPP in days to come. “Together we will build the city. We have had enough of a party which did politics of ethnicity,” he commented.

Calling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) MNAs elected from Karachi ‘selected’, Mashhadi said they had even failed to win the elections for councilors.

Speaking on the occasion, PPP Sindh President Nisar Khuhro said that on behalf of party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari he and his party men welcomed Mashhadi in PPP. “We hope that his joining will benefit the party.

He said that Urdu-speaking people had suffered because the MQM-P, the party which prided itself on representing them, separated them from mainstream politics and they began feeling isolated. “We are the party who own all ethnic, sectarian and religious groups,” Khuhro said.

Reporter Iqtedar Anwar