Latecomers pour in at not-so-historic MQM gathering

Half of the chairs empty after two hours of scheduled time of event

KARACHI: "Tamaam saathi under aa jaien. Programme thori dair me shuru honay vala hai [All workers come inside. The programme will begin shortly]," calls a volunteer on a loudspeaker at the main entrance of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement's (MQM) public gathering in Nishtar Park on Friday. "Mobile aur chaabiyaan apnay hath mein rakhain [Keep your mobile phones and keys in your hands]," he asks the people passing through metal detectors while entering the venue.

It's 6:30pm and the event is already two hours late than the scheduled time. Half of the '15,000' chairs spread across the park where the MQM held its first largest gathering in the 1980s are still empty. People have yet to pour in to make it what the now head of the party, Farooq Sattar, vowed it to be: a historic and unprecedented gathering.

It is the first gathering of the party since it parted ways with its founding chief, Altaf Hussain, on August 23 over a seemingly unpardonable blunder he committed a day ago. No posters and flags flaunting the picture or name of Altaf can be seen. However, slogans in favour of the divorced chief are emerging from a corner of the ground where a group of youngsters is seated in the last rows.

"Altaf bhai hamaray dilon me bastay hain. Dunya ki koi taaqat hamain un se door nahi kar sakti [Altaf bhai lives in our hearts. No power in the world can keep us separated from him]," says Nasir Ahmed, a young party worker from North Karachi. The other worker sitting beside him chants rounding his both hands around his mouth, "Voh door hai to kia hua [So what if he is away]", to which the other youngsters respond in unison "Dilon mein hai basa hua [He lives in our hearts]."

As the sun has completely set, the flow of people coming in the ground has increased. The proportion of vacant seats has reduced to a considerable extent. Still, the programme has not started.

The discipline for which the MQM was famous for is lacking. The same audience, which didn't move an inch in previous events when Altaf was in the driving seat, are wandering here and there, neglecting the directions from the volunteers in green caps who are managing the event.

Almost all the leaders of the party are present in the surrounding of the stage established in one corner of the ground. Some of them are giving interviews to journalists while others are busy in shaking hands with the workers. Those wanting to take selfies with them are being reprimanded by the organising committee in the name of maintaining discipline.

The event has yet to start. Sattar is about to make entry in the venue. For details on what happened next, you may want to turn to the national pages.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 31^st, 2016.