With a fresh agenda and new name to boot, party ready to shake up Karachi’s politics

Qaumi Watan Party, formerly PPP-Sherpao, is perparing to serve up its brand of nationalism.

KARACHI: After nearly a decade of existence, Pakistan Peoples Party - Sherpao is gearing up to shake up Sindh’s political landscape with a new flag and a new name: Qaumi Watan Party.

These cosmetic changes go hand in hand with a shift in the party’s ideology as well as its desire to step away from the realm of national politics and dabble in nationalism instead. Former chief minister of Khyber-Pakthunkwa, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, formed the party about ten years ago after he had a fall-out with the Pakistan Peoples Party. The party won six seats in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assembly and one in the national assembly in the 2008 general elections.

“We have changed our political ideology. We have also shifted from national politics to nationalism. Karachi is one of our main interests,” said Abdul Qayum Khan Advocate, the president of the party’s Sindh chapter.

He said that leaders of different Pashtu-speaking communities in Karachi have shown interest and Sherpao, the party’s central chief, will visit them shortly. “Security, education and civic issues are the main problems of Pashtun in Karachi. They can only be solved if the [community] stands united.” He added that the paradigm of national politics has changed: parties get votes by playing national politics but in the end, leaders end up working only for the interests of the province they belong to.

Sherpao admitted to The Express Tribune that the party has not received a good response in Karachi as compared to other places such as FATA, Quetta and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

“The problem of Karachi is political - parties try to strengthen their grip on the city while innocent people die.” He claimed that electoral constituencies of Karachi have been demarcated to benefit certain groups at the expense of others. Sherpao added that he will offer every political party to join his own.

Talking about his shift from national politics, Sherpao said, “In the past few years, we have been noticing the conditions in which the Pashtuns live…nobody is speaking up for them.” He also lamented the fact that the 18th Amendment, which is aimed at devolving power to provinces, has not been implemented properly.

Sherpao said that his party has come up with a ‘new’ nationalism not the ‘traditional’ one which nationalist groups have used for personal gain. “There will be no class differences in our politics. We will raise our voices for the rehabilitation of war-torn areas and will ask international donors and the federal government for help.”

Ziaur Rehman, an independent researcher, feels that there is space for a new nationalist party and QWP may be able to fill the gap. “Nationalists only have the ANP while the Pashtunkhwa Mili Awami Party is limited to the Pashtun-dominated areas of Baluchistan,” said Rehman. “The party will not become popular easily because Karachi is ANP’s stronghold. Sherpao can [benefit] if he meets tribal leaders of Pashtun communities.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2012.

Correction: In an earlier version of this story, Qaumi Watan Party's Sindh Chapter president was named incorrectly and Ziaur Rehman was wrongly mentioned as being associated with Pakistan Institute of Labour and Research. The corrections have been made.