Mustafa Kamal-led Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) has staged a sit-in at the Fawara Chowk in Karachi for an undefined period. However, it has postponed plans to march on the Sindh Chief Minister House.
PSP chief Mustafa Kamal says the protest would continue until the Sindh government accepts PSP demands over the Sindh Local Government Act 2021.
Police, meanwhile, have closed roads leading towards the Chief Minister House to thwart a possible protest there. PSP activists, including women, are sitting on the Din Mohammad Wafai Road, which leads from the Fawara Chowk to the Arts Council.Kamal had announced plans to stage a sit-in at the CM house after police tear-gassed and baton-charge Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) activists on January 26.
The PSP leader had said that his workers would persist, unlike the MQM-P activists who were removed from the streets around the CM House within two hours. Mustafa Kamal is among the protesters with his family members. PSP issued photographs showing Kamal, his wife and children at a camp in the protest.
Addressing the protesters, Kamal revealed that the Sindh government had held talks with the PSP and was ready to accept 70% of its demands.He said the demands were listened to but had not been accepted yet. The PSP chief said his party has postponed the planned march on the CM house, but it would stage a sit-in “right here” until the government accepts the demand.
“I would sit alone, if everyone leaves,” he said.Kamal claimed that over the years the Pakistan People Party government had received Rs10,000 billion from the National Finance Commission (NFC) but had not spent anything on the city.
He said the citizens were asking where the money had gone. “When people ask, it is called the local bodies system in the language of law,” he said. Kamal said that PSP not only wants the Sindh government to hand over powers to elected local bodies representatives but also come clean over the use of funds.
The PSP leader said that his party began the protest at district levels, but no one listened, and then he announced the January 30 protest and demonstration at the CM House. Mustafa Kamal said his party had refrained from giving the issue an ethnic colour.
Taking a dig at the MQM-P, he said that he had not brought only a few dozen people who could be removed from the street with a baton charge.He said after warning to stage a sit-in at the CM House, the government had held talks with the PSP.
