In a statement on Saturday, Javed responded to MQM-P’s call for the resignation of the Sindh chief minister. She said the dust blowing from Karachi to Kashmore was not related to development issues but was the result of MQM’s past politics, and accused the party of undermining Karachi’s master plan in the past while questioning its criticism of ongoing development projects.
Referring to concerns raised by federal ministers over University Road in Karachi, she asked how much funding they had provided to the city, in billions of rupees. She said those who had been responsible for the city’s past planning failures should not lecture others on development projects today.
The Sindh government spokesperson also described MQM’s demand for new provinces as a reflection of its political difficulties. She said those advocating the division of Sindh had themselves split into numerous factions, and that raising the demand for new provinces was, in her words, the final chapter of MQM’s political bankruptcy.
Javed further alleged that an account of Rs300 billion from the tenure of former Karachi mayor Mustafa Kamal remained missing from Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) records. She challenged MQM leaders to visit their constituencies and face the public instead of holding frequent press conferences.
She added that the opposition’s attempt to create political drama while remaining part of the corridors of power had lost its appeal, and said the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had no reason to fear anyone, advising MQM to focus on its own vote bank.
The statement comes amid renewed political exchanges between the PPP and MQM-P over governance, development projects, resignations and the issue of new provinces in Sindh. MQM-P has demanded the immediate resignation of the Sindh chief minister and has announced a rally against the Sindh government on 29 November on Shahrah-e-Faisal in Karachi. Javed was also responding to recent remarks by federal minister Mustafa Kamal on the creation of new provinces, which she rejected while defending Sindh’s provincial autonomy under the 18th Amendment.
