We will give MQM a run for their money: PPP

MQM’s candidates have emerged as winners from NA-243 in the last two elections.

KARACHI:

Due to the string of attacks on the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Awami National Party in neighbouring areas of Manghopir, these parties have not carried out extensive election campaigns in the constituency of NA-243.

In sectors of North Karachi, the MQM, Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan Peoples Party and Muttahida Deeni Mohaz have put up their flags and written party slogans and symbols on the walls. The parties, however, have been unable to organise corner meetings or rallies in the area.

The number of registered voters in NA-243 is 424,180, out of which 267,699 are male and 156,481 are female. The voter turnout in the 2002 elections was 35 per cent and 40 per cent in 2008.

There are three provincial assembly seats, PS-97, PS- 98, and PS-99, in this constituency.

MQM enjoys an overwhelming support in North Karachi and the party is confident that like previous years, it will sweep the upcoming elections.

In the 2002 elections, in a bid to confine MQM’s vote bank, religious parties contested the elections under the banner of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). Sultan Ahmed Khan of the MQM, however, won the seat with 62,245 votes while Muhammad Saleemuddin Qureshi of the MMA secured 13,105 votes.

In the 2008 elections, Abdul Waseem of the MQM won by a landslide after securing 167,764 votes.

In the elections scheduled on May 11, Jamaat-e-Islami, Muttahida Deeni Mohaz (MDM), Sunni Tehreek and others are contesting independently. But it is the PPP that is confident of giving a tough time to MQM.

“If the elections are fair and transparent, then the PPP will give MQM a run for their money,” said PPP’s candidate for NA-243, Sohail Abidi, while talking to The Express Tribune. “We have started our political campaign even though we have been facing open threats. Last week, the people of Khawaja Ajmer Nagri invited me for a political congregation and I have also received an invitation for a corner meeting in a goth located on the outskirts of the city.”

When asked about MQM loyal supporters, Abidi maintained that his party would be able to put a dent in MQM’s vote bank in the constituency. Abidi will contest against MQM’s Abdul Waseem and ANP’s Raaz Mohammad among others.

Salman Ahmed, a resident of the Haroon View Apartment at the Power House intersection, insisted that the religious parties were not a threat to Muttahida in the elections. “These parties could exploit the situation in the katchi abadis and the adjacent goths, which comprise multi-ethnic populations,” said Ahmed. “The number of registered voters from these areas, however, is not even close to that of the mainstream voters – the Urdu-speaking people.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 3^rd, 2013.