E-campaigning: MQM opts for tweet over speech

Leaders say they will campaign any way they can.

KARACHI: The stage was set, the chairs arranged, the banners hung - but at the last moment, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, who had planned to hold a women’s convention on Sunday at Jinnah Ground, called it off due to threats of attacks on its female activists.

According to MQM leader Khawaja Izharul Hassan, militants were reportedly planning to attack the workers after the rally. “The police received information that militants were planning to attack the women. The terrorists wanted to blow up the buses which were to take the participants home after the rally.”

On first January, MQM workers were attacked and four were killed when they were heading home after attending a party rally to welcome Tahir ul Qadri.

Over five days, four bomb blasts have targeted the party’s offices after which the party chief, Altaf Hussain, announced temporary closure of all its election offices in the city. The party has also observed three days of mourning.



Hasan, who is contesting for PS-99, said that due to these threats, the party decided to call off the public meeting for MQM’s female activists where the party chief was supposed to address them.

Strategic campaigning

With election offices closed and the MQM unable to hold public rallies and massive gatherings, the party has now turned towards door-to-door meetings and is relying on indoor and discrete campaigns.

An active door-to-door campaign has been initiated by the party but will not be announced due to security threats. The party has also formed a committee of dedicated voters in several areas, who with the candidate, will carry out the meetings for campaigning.

The party is also actively using social media to run its electoral campaign and to condemn the attacks on its offices. MQM leader Wasay Jalil said that the party will not surrender or boycott the elections and  will continue the election campaign anyway they can.

Twitter and Facebook have become an ally for the party as all the contesting candidates are available and active on the social media. “We are very vocal on the social media,” said Hassan. MQM leaders, such as Haider Abbas Rizvi, are trending KillMEimMQM on Twitter, while another candidate, Faisal Ali Subzwari who is vying for PS-126, has been tweeting ‘Vote for right, vote for kite’.

https://twitter.com/HaiderRizviMQM/status/328223466539073536

All #MQM candidates campaigning actively. Altaf bhai has appealed ppl 2 carry on campaign. Vote 4 right, Vote 4 Kite #Karachi #Pakistan

— Faisal Subzwari (@faisalsubzwari) April 25, 2013

Published in The Express Tribune, April 29^th, 2013.