Speaking at a demonstration held in connection with the `black day' at Shahrah-i-Quaideen, MQM's deputy convenor Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said that there was difference between Muhajirs and 'Panah Guzin' (refugees). Muhajirs gave blood for the creation of Pakistan, he added.
"Urdu-speaking people, who turned Hindustan into Pakistan, rendered countless sacrifices at the time of creation of Pakistan," he said and added: "We never claimed to be the sole owner of the Pakistan, but what MQM wants due right for the migrated people."
He said that MQM staged a protest demonstration to voice its anger over the PPP leader Khursheed Shah's remarks about the word `Muhajir' as "such utterances amounted to passing derogatory remarks against the supreme Sunnah of Hijrat (migration)".
Demanding strict legal action against Khursheed Shah, the MQM leader said Muhajirs are not only the owners of Sindh, but also of Pakistan.
Speaking on the occasion, senior MQM leader, Dr Farooq Sattar, said that the party's call for observing 'black day' received an overwhelming response from the people of Sindh.
He said the feudal lords have been expanding their control over the country's resources, but the MQM won't allow this kind of oppression to have its root in the urban areas of Sindh. "MQM is against division of Sindh but want fair distribution of resources and creation of new administrative units," he added.
Reiterating that MQM would free the oppressed Sindhi people from the clutches of feudal lords, he said that the MQM's campaign against feudalism would continue till it achieved its logical end. MQM leader Haider Abbas Rizvi said: "There have been two massive migrations in the history of Islam - firstly, it was the migration of Prophet (PBUH) from Makkah to Madina and secondly it was at the time of creation of Pakistan."
Rauf Siddiqui said Muhajir is the one who abandoned everything for Pakistan. He said this rally was a gathering of 'Ashiqan-e-Rasool'(lovers of the Prophet-PBUH).
Meanwhile, MQM chief Altaf Hussain has said that the majority of people of Sindh have given their verdict in favour of new administrative units or provinces by observing a `black day'.
He was talking to office-bearers and workers of the MQM over phone at the Hyderabad Zonal Office.
On this occasion, he paid tributes to the people of Sindh for observing the `black day'.
He said that the `prejudiced' feudal lords of the PPP had never accepted the Urdu-speaking Sindhis or Mohajirs as the true Sindhis. "The PPP sowed the seeds of prejudice and hatred in 1973. The PPP claims to be a national political party, but history bears it out that the PPP has always used Sindh card and not the Pakistan card," he added.
He said that both the Sindhi-speaking Sindhis and Urdu-speaking Sindhis living in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah, Sanghar, Tando Adam, Tando Allehyar, Khairpur, Jacobabad, Larkana, Kashmore and other areas of Sindh have given their verdict in favour of new provinces by observing a `black day' on the call of the MQM against the PPP's misrule.
He said it was the unanimous decision of the Sindhi-speaking people and the Urdu-speaking people or Mohajirs that together they would eliminate the feudal system and bring an end to corrupt political culture. He thanked transporters, business community and other people belonging to different walks of life, for their co-operation in observing the `black day'. He also thanked MQM workers and sympathisers in Punjab, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir for taking part in peaceful demonstrations.