Completing 20 years: The ebb and flow of PTI in Karachi

Lack of solid organisational structure, internal rifts a cause for concern for local leaders

KARACHI: It was July 14, 1996 when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) opened its first office in Karachi at Shaheen Centre, Clifton.

This was the place where founding members Imran Ismail, Dr Arif Alvi, Najeeb Haroon, Haji Nazim, Dawa Khan Sabir and a few others would come and discuss the city's politics as well as the poor public response when the nascent party contested the general elections of 1997.

A Lahore rooftop

Soon after PTI's poor show in the 1997 general elections, when it did not even manage to win a single seat, a meeting was held at the roof of their party office in Lahore where PTI members who were furious and frustrated spoke their mind.

Najeeb Haroon and Imran Ismail released from Central Jail in 1998.

Recalling that day, MNA Dr Arif Alvi said he wanted to note down the reasons of failure on a black board [so they could mend their mistakes] but no one was interested. "Most of them decided to leave, including our Sindh president Haji Nazim," said Alvi, adding that another member said Imran Khan can enjoy his party funeral if he wants to but we are not with him.



Despite the desertions and dwindling public support, Alvi said they did not lose hope. "We continued to hold small corner meetings. Sometimes, while overestimating our popularity, we used to arrange 2,000 chairs but only 50 to 70 people would show up," he remembered.

The turning part in mobilising the public in Karachi was our protest against the NATO supply in 2011, he recalls. "That built momentum as we managed to bring the public with us and we succeeded to carry it till the 2013 general elections," he said.

Discussing the difficulties of competing with a well-established party, Alvi recalls a moment when he exchanged arguments with Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Shoaib Bukhari in a TV show and the MQM leader threatened Alvi with serious consequences. "My wife was so angry at me that she did not talk to me for over a week," he said.

Face saving days

As Imran Ismail recalls, though they were new to politics, they believed they were bringing about a revolution and would sweep the 1997 elections but failed terribly.

Ismail says they started from scratch by holding meetings which were even smaller than corner meetings. "We used to feel proud of meetings where [Imran] Khan would come and address the public."

Ismail remembers how they would avoid going to family weddings so people would not make fun of them. "It was tough time," he recalls.

Imran Ismail and Imran Khan distribute certificates to party workers for outstanding work in 1997.

Talking about their performance in Karachi in the 2013 general elections, he admitted that they failed to cash on the 800,000 votes cast in our favour. Accepting the 'blunder' of not focusing on party structure, Ismail added that the decision of seat-adjustment with the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) in Karachi in the local bodies polls in December 2015 was a terrible mistake which the city leadership still regrets. Ismail adds that because of this, even his family members did not vote for PTI.

Present predicaments

On the internal 'crisis', Najeeb Haroon, a founding member of the party, said the party is currently being run on an auto-pilot system. Unless intra-party elections are held, the situation will not change, he warned.



Haroon claimed the party still has a lot of support among the public but it has failed to consolidate it, saying after 2014 they failed to concentrate on expanding the party structure in the city.

The PTI leader claimed everyone is united under Imran Khan. "All we need to do is build a better party structure and get closer to our supporters and workers," he said.

Talking about the recent case of PTI's by-election candidate [Amjadullah Khan] switching over to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) at the eleventh hour, Haroon said "to be honest I did not even knew him [the candidate] before his name was announced."  One bad choice can change everything, that was our mistake, he admitted.

According to Haroon, the party's peak in the city came in 2011 and 2012 during which PTI organised a massive public gathering [on December 25, 2011], but the local leadership could not carry on the momentum.

Subhan Ali Sahil joined the party in 1999 and has been given various responsibilities, including the Karachi presidency from 2007 to 2009. Sahil seemed upset over the party's poor performance in the past. He criticised the current city leadership, saying the trio (Ali Zaidi, Imran Ismail and Firdous Shamim Naqvi) have caused a great damage to the party in recent years.

"The politics of Karachi is very different from the politics in the rest of the country. Over here we have to stand with the people; sadly our party did not concentrate on this," he said.

On May 14, the party's former Karachi president Ashraf Qureshi and other disgruntled members launched the 'PTI Bachao Tehreek' at a press conference outside Insaf House.

Qureshi told The Express Tribune the PTI's performance in the city is disappointing and committed party workers will not sit by idle and watch their party go down. Qureshi claimed that the PTI has been hijacked by a gang of four men: Alvi, Zaidi, Ismail and Naqvi. He accused them of taking decisions without consulting other senior members.

'We can wipe out MQM'

Few would disagree that the party came into the limelight when Ali Zaidi was heading it in Karachi. During his tenure, the PTI managed to establish a central party office along with a media cell.

Zaidi, the last city president of the party who joined PTI in 2002 and worked as an international coordinator before actively participating in local politics, said "I don't agree that organisational work was suspended during my term, as the same structure helped us contest from around 93% of the total seats in the recent local bodies polls."

Rubbishing doubts about the party's future in the city being at stake, he said, "We brought MQM under pressure. I strongly believe that we can wipe out MQM in a single transparent election."

Imran Khan and Dr Arif Alvi at a jalsa in Karachi in 1996.

PTI MPA Khurram Sher Zaman from PS-112 is all praise for Zaidi, saying he possesses a great personality and it was his hard work that we contested elections from almost 90% of Karachi's seats in the recent LG polls. "But some of his decisions were not right," said Zaman, referring to the seat adjustment with JI in the local bodies elections.



Student activists

Talking about the city's active student politics scene, the former Sindh president of the Insaf Students Federation, Alamgir Khan Mehsud, said the established parties' student wings in every campus have not ceded space for their entry. "We keep our activities underground and only mobilise for events occurring outside the campus," he said, adding that they have avoided the politics of violence which other parties resort to frequently.

All politics is local

The entry of MQM dissident Mustafa Kamal into the city's political landscape does not worry PTI. All party leaders The Express Tribune spoke to claimed the Pak Sarzameen Party will not harm their vote bank in Karachi, even though a sitting PTI MPA has joined Kamal's bandwagon. Alvi said their voters are well associated with PTI, and their sympathies and support will be with them.