KARACHI -  The Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) on Friday continued its protest against non-provision of basic civic amenities to people of the city.

On the ninth day of the protest, several activists and leaders of the party joined the protest camp outside the Karachi Press Club.

Talking to the media, PSP leader Dr Sagheer Ahmed said that they would not end their sit-ins until the government gives assurance about implementing their agenda and starts action on it.

“Our demonstration will continue until the provincial government starts providing facilities to people. It is not only the Sindh government, we have issues with the centre as well," he said.

The PSP leader said they had staged the sit-in after due consideration and soon they would announce their next course of action.

He said the level of the party’s movement would go high with the every passing day and the struggle would go on until “we pull off our assignment”.

He warned that all negotiations would be in vain if the government fails to take practical measures to address the city's issues. He said the party was looking forward to talks, but would take to streets if the negotiations fail.

In a related development, Sindh Minister for Transport Nasir Hussain Shah said while talking to the media that he did not want to create a controversy through his statements, but the PSP protest was nothing more than a point-scoring event. “I am part of the negotiating team therefore cannot speak more than this,” he said.

PSP Chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal had said on Sunday that his party’s protest would continue until the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) led Sindh government resolves issues facing Karachi.

He had expressed these views while addressing a press conference at the PSP camp outside the Karachi Press Club (KPC). The PSP is protesting against provincial rulers’ failure to provide civic amenities to residents of Karachi. PSP leaders, including party President Anis Qaimkhani, Anis Advocate, Dr Sagheer Ahmed and Iftikhar Randhawa, were also present on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, Kamal said that his party staged demonstrations at 20 key points across the country on Saturday and people came out of their houses to support PSP’s stance. He alleged that the Sindh government had taken over the local government department to expand its corrupt practices.

“The PSP is not asking the rulers to fetch stars from the sky. Our fight is for basic amenities for the masses and it will continue until demands are met,” Kamal said.

Talking about the shortage of water in Karachi, the PSP chairman the party had no objection to sharing water with Sindhi brothers. “We only demanded allocation of a reasonable percentage of water from Sindh’s share,” he said. He said that it was the responsibility of the provincial rulers to provide clean drinking water to citizens, but the so-called democratic government was busy looting people’s money. He demanded that the government lay water pipelines and construct roads.

“Poor governance is being witnessed across Sindh and it is regrettable that people of Sindh have been deprived of their basic rights. The PSP will not tolerate it further and will bury the fake magnificence of the rulers,” added Kamal.