PTI emerges as dominant force in Karachi

Election results break MQM's three-decade long control

KARACHI: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has done what was inconceivable until the last general elections. It has managed to dethrone the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan - the undisputed overlords of Karachi.

In doing so, the PTI has broken the three-decade old sway enjoyed by the MQM over the port city. Speculations, predictions, pre-polls have all been thrown out of the window.

According to the latest provisional results released by the Election Commission of Pakistan, PTI's candidates have returned on 14 of the 21 National Assembly seats in the city. They have also clinched at least 22 of the 43 provincial assembly seats being contested in the 2018 general elections. Polls on one seat - PS-87 - were postponed after the demise of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan candidate Sharif Ahmed Khan.



This is a far from the PTI's performance in the 2013 general elections when the party's Dr Arif Alvi  had managed to win the one National Assembly seat from the city - that too, after a hue and cry was raised over rigging allegations in what was then the NA-250 constituency.

This time, the party has beaten the old guard of the city, the MQM-Pakistan, which could only manage to secure four National Assembly and 15 provincial assembly seats. The Pakistan Peoples Party, which did relatively better in other parts of the province, could only manage to get three NA seats and five provincial assembly seats from the city.

One of the biggest upsets the PTI managed to create in the port city was in Karachi, where its candidate, Shakoor Shad, defeated PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, to clinch the NA-246 seat. Lyari has remained a traditional stronghold of the PPP and the seat was being considered a safe one by the party.

The other major upset was witnessed in NA-254, which is home to Nine-Zero - the headquarters of the once mighty MQM. Until two years ago, the area was completely dominated by the MQM, which hadn't lost the seat in 30 years. Not only this, it was unthinkable for any other party to even run its election campaign in the area.

Another surprising result was witnessed in NA-249, where the PTI's Faisal Vawda defeated the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Shehbaz Sharif. The latter, though a new entrant himself to Karachi's political battlefield, was being considered a favourite on the basis of his performance as Punjab's chief minister.



Meanwhile, the PTI chief Imran Khan returned on NA-243, defeating the MQM-P's Ali Raza Abidi and former deputy speaker of the Sindh Assembly and PPP leader Shehla Raza.

For his part, Khurram Sher Zaman, the former parliamentary leader of PTI in the Sindh Assembly, who has again won PS-110, told The Express Tribune, "We will play a strong opposition in the provincial assembly and will form the next government in Sindh too." He added that the PTI had defeated the PPP in Lyari and Larkana. "Karachi has also rejected the MQM. Next time, we will win the whole of Sindh," he remarked.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 27^th, 2018.