‘They want to divide Karachi for China cutting’: Murtaza Wahab takes a swipe at MQM.

Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab criticised the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), saying that its aim was to divide the city so that shops could be built inside the zoo and wedding halls could operate on amenity plots.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the Garden Pumping Station, Wahab said the facility was built in 2005 but had never become operational.

He noted that both Jamaat-e-Islami and MQM were active at the time and that the area was considered an MQM stronghold. He alleged that residents had been given false promises.

Wahab said that if Jamaat-e-Islami’s demands were directed at the federal government, its leader Hafiz Naeemur Rehman should go to Islamabad and protest rather than blocking Karachi’s roads and creating difficulties for citizens.

He also accused MQM of introducing politics based on ethnicity, fear and division in Karachi. Wahab claimed that this style of politics had been buried and alleged that attempts to divide the city again were being made for corruption and “China cutting”, the illegal subdivision and sale of amenity or public land.