Report in The Nation, Nov 10, 2020
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan People’s Party yesterday said 40 percent of Karachi was Cantonment area and the PPP had never been in control of the Local Government of Karachi since 1979.
In a statement, PPP leader Taj Haider said the local government had either been under the Jamat-e-Islami or an ethnic party. “No other city in this world has seen ethnic and linguistic tyranny backed by dictatorship on the scale Karachi has seen,” he added. Haider, Member Core Committee of the PPP, said it should be understood that in the Census 2017 the population of all districts in Sindh was undercounted including that of the districts of Karachi.
“The splinter groups of the old terrorist setup by insisting that only Karachi had been undercounted are displaying the same separatist and hate-oriented mindset with which their mother organization was created,” he added.
Karachi, he said, had bled enough at the hands of these groups. Three generations have been destroyed. “Yet these splinter groups are trying to fan hatred all over again. Governments of PPP in order to bring them in political mainstream have been including them in their provincial and federal governments. More than 2,500 projects of Karachi included in successive provincial ADPs were implemented through their local governments elected on gunpoint,” he maintained.
He said quite a few of their leaders after looting Karachi had fled abroad and were openly participating in ‘anti-Pakistan’ demonstrations while the splinter groups within the country were attacking PPP for misdeeds that they had themselves committed. “The only crime of PPP is ‘Pakistan Khappay (We Want Pakistan),” he said.
The PPP leader said urban and rural areas had to progress together. Villages can exist for centuries without cities. Cities cannot survive even for a fortnight without villages.
“We should understand that unless the economic situation of the rural poor improves, slums shall continue to increase in our cities and there can’t be economic growth unless inequalities are reduced and purchasing power of the rural poor is augmented,” he added.
Taj Haider said that PPP was the makers of the Constitution and the 18th amendment did not need sermons on national dialogue.
“The constitution defines and lays down boundaries for every institution. PPP is struggling for upholding the Constitution and Law from the PDM (Pakistan Democratic Movement) platform and that should suffice,” he remarked
https://nation.com.pk/10-Nov-2020/40pc-of-karachi-cantt-area-ppp
