KARACHI, April 6: In the latest addition to Mustafa Kamal’s Pak Sarzameen party (PSP), provincial lawmaker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Bilqis Mukhtar announced Wednesday that she is joining the former Karachi mayor and his group of MQM dissidents.
“I congratulate Bilqis Mukhtar on joining the party,” said Mustafa Kamal addressing a press conference at his DHA residence alongside Ms Mukhtar.
“Thousands are joining us. We are getting calls from all over the world where Pakistanis reside,” said Kamal “We gave our services to MQM for 35 years. I have mustered the courage (to take this step) despite being a woman,” said Mukhtar, telling people to not be afraid and to join them for the sake of Pakistan’s future.
“I felt the need to join these leaders after hearing them speak. I am telling my brothers and sisters: people like Mustafa Kamal have come for your future,” she said.
For 35 years, we have chanted the slogan ‘Hum nah hon, hamare baad Altaf! Altaf!’. The slogan we chant now will be ‘Hum nah on, humare baad Pak Sarzameen shad baad!’,” she said.
She announced that she was quitting the MQM and also tendering her resignation from the membership of the Sindh Assembly.
Mukhtar has been a member of the Sindh Assembly since 2002, and is currently a provincial lawmaker on a reserved seat for women. She has been a member of the Standing Committee on Minorities Affairs, Standing Committee on Women Development and the Standing Committee on Social Welfare.
Several prominent names have joined Pak Sarzameen since Kamal returned to Karachi last month and announced the formation of the new party in a direct challenge to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.
The most recent addition to the party was revealed on Monday, when former MQM senator Dr Mohammed Ali Brohi and other dissident members of the party joined the ex-Karachi mayor.
Besides Brohi, several MQM activists who had served as zonal members, zonal-in-charges, and sector in-charges also joined the party. With Brohi’s induction, the number of dissident MQM leaders in the PSP has increased to seven.-Agencies
- Latest
- Trending
