Reporting snapshot · 21 September 2026. The MQM-P rally described below took place in Karachi on Sunday, 20 September 2026, and the account reflects the reporting published on 20-21 September. Turnout figures were not independently verified; party leaders described the gathering in qualitative terms, and no official crowd estimate was published. The party's claims about public support are its own characterisation.
What happened
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) launched its street campaign for new administrative units with a rally in Karachi on Sunday, taking the demand from parliamentary forums to the roads. According to The Express Tribune, the rally began in Karimabad and concluded at Mazar-e-Quaid, the mausoleum of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, drawing party workers and supporters including women, young people and students.
Dawn reported that activists carrying party flags and chanting slogans converged on Shahrah-i-Pakistan near Ayesha Manzil to form a caravan of vehicles towards Mazar-e-Quaid, where the party’s central leadership addressed the participants. The rally was organised by the MQM-P’s District Central chapter, the party said.
Addressing the gathering, MQM-P chairman Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said the people had “given their decision” and vowed that the party would not return home until its demands were accepted, according to The Express Tribune. He said the people of Tando Allahyar, Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas had already expressed support, and that Karachi had now spoken in favour of the demand. “Today, our demand for administrative units is being discussed nationwide,” he said, according to Dawn.
What the party is demanding
Siddiqui said new provinces should not be created on a linguistic basis but on administrative grounds, so that the benefits of democracy could reach the public. “Today marks the beginning of the struggle for administrative units, not the end,” he said, according to Dawn. In remarks carried by The Express Tribune, he said the rally marked the beginning, not the end, of the struggle, and that the party had raised its voice for citizens’ rights, approached the courts and presented the people’s case.
Senior MQM-P leader Dr Farooq Sattar said the large turnout reflected the determination of Karachi’s people to secure greater administrative powers and their rights. He said “18 years of patience” had come to an end and claimed that people across Sindh had now taken to the streets for their rights. “Administrative units will change the future of Karachi, as well as of Larkana, Sukkur, Nawabshah, Mirpurkhas, Hyderabad and other cities of Sindh,” he said, according to Dawn.
Sattar said the party wanted a system in which local representatives could play an effective role in managing resources and addressing the problems of their areas, while basic facilities were provided to people at their doorstep. Senior MQM-P leader Nasreen Jalil, former Karachi mayor Wasim Akhtar, members of the national and Sindh assemblies, senators, party workers and office-bearers attended the rally, The Express Tribune reported.
Why the campaign has moved to the streets
The rally followed weeks of escalating statements by the party, which had said it would take its demand to the streets after exhausting parliamentary and political forums. On 14 September, the MQM-P announced the September 20 rally from Ayesha Manzil to Mazar-e-Quaid as the first demonstration of a street campaign for new administrative units, The Express Tribune reported, citing remarks by chairman Siddiqui and federal health minister Mustafa Kamal.
The demand itself is longstanding. On 17 August, the party announced plans for a national dialogue on new provinces and administrative units, arguing that population growth, weak governance and the concentration of political power made further devolution necessary. It has repeatedly called for implementation of Article 140-A of the Constitution, which requires provinces to establish local governments and devolve political, administrative and financial authority to elected local representatives, and has said it submitted a constitutional amendment bill in the National Assembly.
The issue has also become a federal political flashpoint. In early August, interior minister Mohsin Naqvi’s remarks that the country needed to revisit its administrative structure drew a demand from the PPP for his resignation and a debate that KhabarWire covered in its report on the governance-reset row. In March, an MQM-P delegation had pressed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to include Article 140-A in a 28th constitutional amendment, as covered in KhabarWire’s report on that meeting.
The constitutional and political hurdles
Creating new provinces in Pakistan requires a constitutional amendment, not an executive order. The PPP-led Sindh government has opposed the demand, and the party argues the MQM-P’s push is a political distraction rather than a reform. The divide pits the MQM-P — a partner in the PML-N-led federal coalition that also holds the federal health portfolio — against the PPP, which governs Sindh and is itself a federal ally.
The rally’s choice of venue was itself significant. Mazar-e-Quaid sits in Karachi’s District East, where authorities have in the past restricted gatherings around the mausoleum grounds; the MQM-P described this rally as culminating at the site, and no immediate official objection to the event was reported on 20-21 September. The absence of chairman Siddiqui and senior leader Sattar from federal health minister Kamal’s press conference on 19 September, at which he described the 18th Amendment as having divided the country into “four independent states”, was noted by Dawn as suggesting the party’s internal rifts over leadership control were far from over.
What is still uncertain
Several questions remain open. The party has not published a detailed map of which new administrative units it proposes or their boundaries, and its leaders have offered overlapping figures — Sattar has spoken of six units in Sindh, while Kamal has raised the creation of up to 33 units across the country. Whether the demand would ultimately require redrawing provincial boundaries, which only a constitutional amendment approved by the relevant assemblies can do, remains a legal question the party has not fully reconciled with its insistence that units be created “without altering boundaries”.
The response of the federal and provincial governments to the street campaign is also unclear. The MQM-P has said it will visit cities across Sindh and continue the campaign until its demands are met, but no official response to Sunday’s rally had been published at the time this article was prepared. Turnout was described qualitatively rather than counted, and the party’s claims about public support are its own.
Why it matters
The launch of a street campaign marks a shift in how the MQM-P is pursuing a demand it has advanced for years through parliament, courts and media. As a partner in the ruling coalition, the party has sought to pressure the federal government on local government powers while simultaneously confronting the PPP-led Sindh government, which it accuses of neglecting urban areas. Moving the campaign to the streets raises the political temperature in Karachi at a time when the city is already hosting other political activity, including long-march preparations by other parties.
For readers, the key questions are whether the campaign translates into sustained mobilisation, whether the Sindh government or the federal coalition responds, and whether the demand advances constitutionally. As with all such reporting, this account is a dated snapshot based on the coverage published on 20-21 September 2026; the campaign is ongoing and details may develop.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a synthesis of published material, not eyewitness reporting. Sources were reviewed on 21 September 2026.
- The Express Tribune — MQM-P takes administrative units fight to streets21 September 2026 · The rally route, the leaders' remarks, and the campaign launch; the primary account of the event.
- Dawn — Muttahida power show calls for new administrative units in country21 September 2026 · Independent report of the rally and the same leaders' remarks, corroborating the Tribune account.
- Dawn — MQM-P wants administrative restructuring of Sindh without altering boundaries: Kamal20 September 2026 · Kamal's press conference, Sattar's announcement of the rally, and the note on internal party friction.
- The Express Tribune — MQM-P set to flex political muscle14 September 2026 · The party's announcement of the street campaign and the September 20 rally.
- Pakistan Today — MQM-P renews push for new province in 'Urban Sindh'13 September 2026 · Background on the demand, the Article 140-A amendment bill and the referendum call.
