KARACHI: Despite the fact that the Sindh government has started extending the ‘mini-smart lockdown’ to more neighborhoods in Karachi after a significant increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has announced protests. in the city tomorrow (Sunday) in an attempt to counter the recent back-to-back political demonstrations by the Muttahida Qaumi-Pakistan Movement (MQM-P) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).

In the parade on September 25, MQM-P again demanded a new province carved out of Sindh while JI in the march on September 27 announced that they would hold a day of solidarity for Karachi across the country on October 14 and hold a three day public referendum on the Karachi issue.

Announcing PPP rallies during a press conference on Friday, Sindh Education and Manpower Minister Saeed Ghani said the PPP would conduct a ‘Karachi Solidarity Rally’ in the city on Sunday against what he said the plots of several political parties for the division of Sindh were practicing politics on the basis of hatred and ethnicity.

The rallies will start at 2 p.m. on Sunday from Ayesha Manzil and will end at Pasar Ratu via Liaquatabad, Teen Hatti, Guru Mandir, People’s Secretariat and Area Line, said Ghani who is also president of PPP Karachi.

He claimed that the PPP general meeting later proved to be more successful than the previous general meetings and party meetings in the city.

He said the demonstrations would once again prove that the Karachi people had survived and would remain with the PPP. “The next mayor will also become a PPP member if local government elections are held in Karachi in a transparent manner without fraud,” said the provincial minister.

He emphasized that the standard operating procedures recommended by the government against the spread of the corona virus will be adhered to as much as possible during PPP protests.

Meanwhile, responding to the announcement of the PPP rally, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and MQM-P said the province’s ruling party had spread ethnic hatred in the city.

Announcing a protest against corruption and poor governance from the provincial government outside the Bilawal House, PTI Karachi President and MPA Khurrum Sher Zaman said the PPP would hold a rally to destroy the city.

“Through this organizing, the PPP has spread ethnic hatred in a city whose citizens have faced the Sindh government’s biased policies for the past 12 years,” Zaman said.

Senior MQM-P leader Khawaja Izharul Hasan said the PPP’s decision to stage a rally on Sunday showed that MQM-P’s successful march had panicked the provincial government.

“The PPP should have held a demonstration with joy in the city because Karachi residents know what the provincial government did to them in its 12 years of rule,” Hasan said. He claimed that the PPP would bring government employees and party workers from the interior of Sindh to the demonstration.