Tribune Take: Musharraf's physical absence causes low turnout at rally
Salman Siddiqui, The Express Tribune‘s correspondent based in Karachi discusses the significance of the fact that Musharraf wasn't physically present at the rally, eventually contributing to the low turn out. In his opinion, it was a weak start to Musharraf's political ambitions.
Meanwhile, Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wassan said on Monday that the former president will be arrested from the airport when he returns. Siddiqui says that such threats by the Pakistan Peoples Party(PPP) is just payback for the days when Musharraf was in power and had refused to gaurantee late Prime Minster Benazir Bhutto's safety.
Read Salman Siddiqui's articles here.
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there were more than 500000 people on the rally, you guys must be crazy to say there was low turnout!! Musharraf Khappay!!! sab se pehle APML!!! Now dear tribune, "Take that!!"
Tribune's biased assessment on APML is just pure rubbish.
He managed to draw in crowd of over 30,000 without him being personally there. Give them some credit. They managed to gather people in such short time without media covering his event as they did for Imran Khan. Granted, it may not have been as big but he pulled in substantial amount of people. Give them credit for where they deserve it.
The real zalzala will be when he arrives on Jan 29. You will see people of Karachi respond.
Musharraf is yesterday's dictator. That is why no one really cares about him. It's time to move on.
I don’t agree with the caption if this news.
There were several aspects that do not pull the crown towards the really of General Musharraf.
The first point is that Mushsrraf’s APML is not properly organized any where in the country including Karachi.
The second point is that General Musharraf is not a newly rising star in the country.
The third point is that on that particular day when the rally was held, the weather was quite cold and Karachiites are not used to remain out of their residences, despite being Sunday, in such a cold weather.
The fourth point is that General Pervez Musharraf is wanted in various cases in the country viz. assassination of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, Benazir Bhutto and killing of innocent students at Lal Masjid at Islamabad.
As far as the matter of physical presence of General Musharraf in Karachi is concerned, this is not the fact.
When MQM Chief Mr. Altaf Hussain addresses any rally in Karachi or any other part of Pakistan, he is also not physically present in any rally to pull the crowd.
The actual crowd in General Musharraf’s rally was of Bangladeshi nationals who are illegally residing in Karachi.
The address of General Musharraf to the rally was premature and it was not the right time to do it. Probably the advisers of General Musharraf after seeing the rally of Imran Khan held on December 25, 2011 must have advised him to choose the same venue to address the rally but all gone in vain.
As far as announcement of his coming to Pakistan was concerned, it would also have been done by General Musharraf through a press release.