MQM provincial ministers submit resignations to Governor Sindh

KARACHI: Provincial ministers from the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) have submitted their resignations to Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad following the party's decision to split with the ruling coalition.

Meanwhile, members of the MQM who were acting as advisors in the provincial government submitted their resignations to Chief Minister House.

MQM leader Haider Abbas Riziv said that Governor Ibad would also submit his resignation.

The provincial ministers resigned following the MQM’s announcement that it was parting ways with the PPP-led coalition government over various grievances including withdrawal of cases against Lyari gang war criminals.

During a news conference on Saturday, Sattar said that MQM stood by the PPP in difficult times, but the PPP did not reciprocate in an appropriate manner.

“We stressed the need to let the local government system continue for devolving power at the grassroots level and for continuing development works. But the PPP abolished the local government system.”

Sattar alleged that hindrances were created in the working of the MQM ministers and that issues were taken up in the meetings of the core committees of the PPP and the MQM but the non-serious attitude on the part of the PPP persisted and the problems remained unresolved.

“We placed our grievances before President Asif Zardari and other leaders of the PPP but the situation did not change,” he said.

Sattar said that the PPP also created the Peoples’ Aman Committee and gave it a licence to kill shopkeepers, traders, business persons and other innocent citizens.