PSP says MQM-P's demand for new province a plot to trigger ethnic violence.

HYDERABAD -- Pak SarzamAeen Party (PSP) chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal has called for awarding special status with autonomy to cities like Karachi, Lahore and Hyderabad under the local government system as they are growth engines like any other cities of the world.

Mr Kamal was talking to reporters at an Iftar dinner hosted by the PSP at a banquet. PSP president Anis Qaimkhani, Shabbir Qaimkhani and other leaders were also present.

He said the PSP had proposed that Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad should be given special status in the local government system with autonomy. The cities must have administrative and financial autonomy so that they could prove themselves to be growth engines of the country, he said, adding that it was a normal practice in the developed world.

Regrettably, he observed, new cities were not established in the country and the only one that had been developed was IslamaAbad, which had fallen prey to bureaucratic greed. He said Karachi alone could generate Rs8,000 billion which was actually needed for the country's economy. He said PSP's proposal should be worked on as a test case.

He ridiculed the demand for a separate province being made by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), arguing that the party that did not have the authority to clear drains in the metropolis was demanding a new province. He termed it a conspiracy to foment ethnic riots. He said PSP would foil the conspiracy. He said it was a slogan meant only to hoodwink people.

The MQM-P could not deliver a single speech over the issue in Sindh Assembly but it was raising such a demand outside. He recalled that the party had...