Karachi: After days of bickering, three main political parties of Pakistan - Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) - having stakes in Karachi, have reached a “historic” accord to reconcile their mutual differences to work jointly for much-needed progress and development of the financial capital of the country.
The most surprising aspect of the unprecedented development is that no official announcement was immediately made to make the public aware of this development. Instead a renowned senior TV news anchor took to twitter to air this “Breaking news”.
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Senior TV news anchor Kamran Khan just before midnight on Saturday uploaded a video clip of himself on his twitter account to make people aware about this development.
Through the video clip, he informed his millions of social media followers that the accord of political reconciliation among the PPP, PTI, and MQM had brought to an end the situation of major political uncertainty and bickering that had been continuing in Karachi.
Karam Khan, who hosts a popular news show on weekdays on one of the many private TV news channels of Pakistan, said that the accord had been reached in the presence of a senior official of Pakistan Army.
Khan said in his video clip that the accord would enable the three political parties to work together for progress and development of Karachi as it would augur well for the city.
Clear indications
According to him, the negotiations for the accord were attended by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Sindh Information and Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, Sindh Education and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani, Federal Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar, Federal Maritime Affairs’ Minister Ali Zaidi, and Karachi’s Mayor Waseem Akhtar. The Sindh CM and two Sindh ministers represented PPP in the talks, the two federal ministers belong to PTI, while Karachi’s mayor represented MQM in the negotiations.
The accord was reached in the backdrop of clear indications repeatedly given by the authorities of PTI’s federal government that it wanted to directly assume the administrative control of Karachi in order to improve its civic and municipal infrastructure.
The PPP, which has been in power in Sindh province for last 12 years, strongly reacted against such intentions of the federal government saying that any such act to impose federal rule in Karachi would be utterly against the spirit of the country’s Constitution as it would be a brazen attack on the provincial autonomy. The PPP said that it would resist any such move of the PTI government against the provincial capital of Sindh.
The PPP already announced protest demonstrations across the province against the feared move of federal government.
The PPP held an emergency meeting of its Central Executive Committee on Saturday evening and come up with the firm stance that constitution of the country authorised only the party’s Sindh government to have the complete responsibility and control to manage Karachi as in no way the federal government could abolish this constitutional right of the provincial government.
The plight of Karachi came to spotlight late last month when Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and army to start emergency work to uplift civic and sanitation conditions in the city after a spell of heavy monsoon rains.
The MQM traditionally has a dominant role in politics of Karachi as majority of the elected local government representatives in the city belong to the party. The MQM said that the municipal system of Karachi lacks authority and resources it deserves to manage the vast city.
The PTI won majority of the National Assembly seats of Karachi in last general elections of the country in 2018. The term of Karachi’s mayor and other local government representatives in the city will come to an end later this month as PTI is hopeful that next mayor of the city will belong to it.
Confirmation
Hours after Khan posted the video on Twitter, Sindh Information and Local Government minister issued a brief statement to officially confirm the accord.
The provincial minister while welcoming the development said that the alliance among the PPP, PTI, and MQM would prove to be a milestone in the passage of progress and development of Karachi.
He said that this alliance would surely be disliked by the elements who oppose the development of Karachi. He mentioned earlier the Sindh government had welcomed the cooperation extended by the federal government and NDMA for cleaning storm water drains of Karachi.
