Will possess Karachi, swears every party

Most elusive elections in thirty years as each party out to prey on city

KARACHI: These are strange times to be a Karachiite. As the city goes to vote, this is perhaps the first time in almost three decades that the results remain elusive to even the most ardent speculators.

If you were living in Karachi during this time and had not been living under a rock, you would have well known the outcome of any of the previous elections well in advance. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement was the undisputed electoral champion. Hardly a competitor ever threw in the gauntlet. This time it's different.

Every major political party, be it the Pakistan Peoples Party, Pak Sarzameen Party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal or the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, is claiming they will sweep the elections in the metropolis.



In the 2013 general elections, the MQM's candidates returned on 17 out 20 seats in Karachi. Similar was the case in the 2015 local bodies elections.

The turning point came on August 22, 2017, when the MQM chief was declared persona non grata on account of an incendiary speech that may have well marked the end of his political grip over the city. What followed was a mass-scale operation against the party's organisational setup, which broke the party's back and resulted in its splitting into various factions.

An immature phoenix has emerged in the form of MQM-Pakistan, whose main contender is the PSP - formed by former MQM leaders and headed by its dynamic former mayor Mustafa Kamal.

Both parties claim the census and subsequent delimitations rendered them at a disadvantage, even accusing the authorities of pre-poll rigging.

With all these factors working against the once invincible MQM, other parties have smelt blood and are fighting to fill the void. PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has claimed his party will win the majority of seats. Party leader Manzoor Wassan went a step further, prophesying his party to emerge victorious on at least 17 of the 21 seats.

Same is the case with PTI, whose leader Imran Ismail has forecast victory on the majority of seats.

PSP chief Mustafa Kamal is so confident he dismisses the MQM-P as a political force. "We only have competition from the PPP on around three to four seats," he said, during a recent corner meeting. "We will easily secure 17-18 seats."



The MMA and TLP too expressed confidence in their ability to win Karachi. The MQM-P meanwhile estimated their electoral gains to be on around 15 seats.

What about the voters?

With every party claiming to conquest Pakistan's largest city, it is only its residents who seem quite disillusioned with all the rhetoric.

According to police reports, the PTI and MQM-P organised two of the largest rallies in the city, with headcounts above 10,000 people. The PSP too managed to gather a sizeable crowd on Monday, but it has largely been unable to attract large crowds to its corner meetings.

Meanwhile, pundits gave vague predictions that were as oblivious to public opinion as the parties' choice of candidates.  For the first time in 30 years, forecasts for election outcomes are riddled with ambiguities, with even the candidates unsure about their probable vote banks. No matter which way the results swing today, Karachi's political field will have changed forever. For better or worse, only God knows.