Karachi: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) is launching a campaign to reach out to residents in Karachi through a cleanliness drive until the city’s municipal representatives are installed.

Farooq Sattar, a senior MQM leader, addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, said the campaign to be launched on March 10 would last more than a month or until the party nominated mayor, deputy mayor and other office bearers take their oaths of office.

The campaign’s launch comes after a revolt last week by two key party personalities who, after remaining in self-exile for three years, staged a comeback and announced their defection from the party.

Former mayor and senator Mustafa Kamal and former chief of the MQM coordination committee Anees Kaimkhani, announced a new party and invited other members of their former party to join them.

Dr Saghir Ahmad, another member of parliament and a former provincial minister, on Monday joined Kamal and Kaimkhani, who claimed there was a long queue of MQM workers and leaders waiting to join them soon.

Termed as Clean Karachi Campaign (CKC), the drive is not only designed to clean the city, but also address the “confusion” among the people, the party said.

“This campaign would clean every kind of trash and rubbish from the city and the mind of the people,” Sattar remarked without directly referring to the defected leaders.

Outlining the CKC, Sattar said all the local government representatives, members of the provincial and federal assemblies and the senators besides the workers and volunteers would participate.

The campaign would also provide the party a chance to contact voters and hundreds of meetings would be held on Wednesday to start that drive, Sattar said.

The party would also disseminate its message through half a million email contacts in addition to text messages through cell phones.

“We are transforming this campaign into an opportunity,” he said.

The MQM would also write letters to the other political parties including Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League (PML), Jamat-e-Islami and others inviting them to join in the CKC.

In the following phases, the party would take the cleanliness drive to the other cities of Sindh province.