The key for the MQM to become a truly national party is to find winning candidates in the rural areas.
ISLAMABAD: This is with reference to George Fulton’s article of September 15 titled “The MQM paradox”. The image of it being a party of the middle class is perhaps due to the fact that party is still restricted to the main cities of Sindh, and that these regions, even before the formation of the MQM, used to vote for middle-class politicians. Karachi and Hyderabad used to vote on religious grounds, sending members of the Jamaat-e-Islami and the JUP. The members of these two parties were as middle class as those from the MQM now.
If election results are analysed further, one will find that the PPP as well as the PML-N manage to get candidates from the middle class into parliament from the cities. The key for the MQM to become a truly national party is to find winning candidates in the rural areas to shed its tag that is a party for only Urdu speakers. Also, one has to consider the reality that by and large people in rural areas do not tend to vote for ordinary individuals.
The other issue is that Altaf Hussain will have to come back and himself lead the country.
Khalid Munir
Published in The Express Tribune, September 16th, 2010.
