Federal Health Minister and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) senior leader Syed Mustafa Kamal on Saturday said that the administrative units formula his party is advocating for Sindh is not new. Kamal, a former Karachi mayor, argued that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had already applied a similar approach by carving the city into seven districts through its government in the province. Speaking to media persons in Karachi, he said the MQM-P would not support any move by the PPP-led Sindh government against the creation of administrative units in the province, adding that this is why his party's legislators had unanimously walked out of the provincial assembly session.
"We are not advocating the division of Sindh along ethnic lines," he stressed, clarifying that the MQM-P's proposal is based purely on administrative considerations. He argued that the concept had already been implemented by successive PPP governments in Karachi. "Karachi was once administratively a single district, but whenever the PPP came into power in Sindh, it carved out more districts from the city." As a result, Karachi now comprises seven districts, he said, pointing out that Malir and Keamari are among the districts created by PPP governments.
He claimed that the PPP had deliberately carved up Karachi along ethnic lines to artificially shore up its political standing in the city. He contrasted Karachi's administrative structure with that of other major cities, saying that Lahore, with an approximate population of 17.5 million, remains a single district, while Peshawar and Quetta are also administered as single districts. He claimed that the PPP government had effectively divided Karachi into pieces along ethnic lines.
"You didn't care for Karachi when you were doing this," he said, addressing the PPP. The MQM-P leader said his party has now proposed establishing administrative units in Sindh without making ethnicity the basis for such restructuring. He acknowledged that the MQM-P had not resisted the PPP government's decision to divide Karachi into more districts. "Karachi did not disintegrate or vanish when seven districts were carved out of it," he said, adding that similarly, Sindh's territorial integrity would not be harmed by creating administrative units.
Reacting to Kamal's statement, Sindh government spokesperson Sadia Javed said that talking about dividing Sindh in the name of administrative units is unacceptable, and challenged the MQM-P to raise the matter on the floor of the provincial assembly. Sadia said that dividing Karachi into seven districts and dividing Sindh are two entirely different matters, arguing that the PPP had taken administrative decisions in response to public needs. "An example of Karachi's administrative structure cannot be used to justify the division of Sindh." She described Sindh as more than an administrative map that can be altered at will, saying the province represents thousands of years of civilization and history.
She said the provincial assembly, as the representative institution of Sindh's people, has already rejected every attempt to divide the province. She also asked why the MQM-P had not sought an end to the job quota system during Gen Pervez Musharraf's era, saying that since the party is still part of the federal government, it should try to achieve this objective now if it is serious about the issue. She further claimed that the MQM-P's self-styled leaders lack the support even of their own MPAs.