KARACHI - Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) Sindh chief Ghulam Ghaus Baghdadi said on Saturday that his party would play role of a “real opposition” in the Sindh Assembly instead of becoming part of any power game.
Addressing a party meeting, Baghdadi said there has been no real opposition in the provincial assembly since 1970, making it very easy for the past governments to plunder the national exchequer. He was of the view that TLP’s newly elected MPAs will follow in the footsteps of late Prof Shah Fareedul Huq, the Jamiat Ulema Pakistan-Noorani stalwart who had served as opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly in early 70s. Baghdadi said that their MPAs would not become part of any corrupt party; rather they would stop the Sindh government from looting people’s money. TLP’s Muhammad Younas Soomro won Lyari’s PS-107 seat by securing 26,248 votes and Mufti Muhammad Qasim Fakhri won the PS-115 seat by securing 21,596 votes and defeating Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Abdur Rehman.
Besides, he said the TLP would stage protests because their mandate was ‘stolen’ across the country. He urged party workers and supporters to be ready for any call from the top leadership.
Separately, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Karachi President Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman vowed that his party’s only elected MPA Syed Abdur Rasheed, who emerged victorious from PS-108, would honour his promises.
Hafiz Naeem said that people of Lyari had shown confidence in the MMA and Rasheed will raise the voice for Lyariites by representing them in the provincial assembly. “Rasheed had struggled for residents of Lyari even before he was elected and now he would work for their betterment and welfare in an effective manner,” he said.
The MMA leader said that people of Lyari had always remained associated with the Jamaat-e-Islami. In the past, he said, Ghulam Hussain Baloch was elected from Lyari. Former mayor Abdus Sattar Afghani also hailed from Lyari.
This is the first time since 2002 general elections that candidates belonging to religious parties got elected. In 2002, the MMA had managed to get its nine candidates elected across the province.