Federal Minister for Health and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Syed Mustafa Kamal has announced that a referendum will be held on the creation of new provinces, describing December as a crucial month for the proposed initiative, ARY News reported.
Addressing party workers in Karachi’s District Central, Kamal said Pakistan had reached a decisive turning point and that the time had come to dismantle the country’s entrenched feudal, wadera and capitalist systems.
He maintained that the state’s priorities were increasingly aligned with the need to address the fundamental problems facing ordinary citizens.
The MQM-P leader claimed that marginalised communities across Pakistan were looking towards Karachi for leadership on the issue of creating new provinces, which he presented as an important step towards addressing longstanding grievances.
Kamal accused opponents of the proposal of attempting to provoke tensions among Sindh’s linguistic and ethnic communities to obstruct the creation of new administrative units.
He emphasised the importance of protecting the rights of all communities living in the province, describing Sindhis as an oppressed population whose lives, property and dignity must be safeguarded.
The federal minister said MQM-P had a responsibility to protect the interests of Sindhis and urged the Muhajir community to demonstrate greater inclusiveness towards people from different ethnic and linguistic backgrounds residing in Karachi.
He called for unity among the city’s diverse communities rather than allowing political disagreements over administrative restructuring to deepen social divisions.
Turning his criticism towards the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Kamal questioned the party’s claim to represent the entire province of Sindh.
He alleged that the PPP secured only 20 percent of the total votes and therefore could not legitimately claim to speak on behalf of all the province’s residents.
Kamal also accused the PPP of resisting an accurate population count in Karachi, claiming that the city’s population stood at 30.5 million.
He alleged that the ruling party in Sindh feared the political and administrative implications of recognising the city’s population at that level.
The MQM-P leader reiterated his support for the formation of new provinces and indicated that December would be particularly important for advancing the process.
However, the reported remarks did not specify a referendum date, the proposed territorial boundaries of any new provinces or the legal mechanism through which such a vote would be conducted.
Kamal’s statements come amid continuing political debate over administrative restructuring, provincial representation and the distribution of resources and authority in Pakistan.