Party versus Amn: Lyari vote will go the way Uzair Baloch decides

PAC chief insists he does not belong to the Pakistan Peoples Party.

KARACHI:

If the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) thought it would buy the loyalty of Lyari residents by awarding tickets to Peoples Amn Committee (PAC) candidates, it’s in for a shock, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The three candidates from Lyari - for both national and provincial seats - may be registered with the Election Commission of Pakistan on the PPP ticket, but their loyalties lie with PAC chief Uzair Baloch. “I do not belong to the PPP,” Baloch categorically stated. “I have not been a worker of this party, nor do I think I will join it in the future,” he told The Express Tribune.

This may be a set back for the former ruling party because it has been sweeping the Lyari seat since its formation in 1967. This densely populated area of the city, which falls under NA-248, is popularly known among PPP activists as their second home after Garhi Khuda Bux.

However, the past five years have seen a significant downfall in the party’s popularity, which somewhat explains why the PPP bowed and decided to nominate PAC candidates from the neighbourhood. These candidates are not PPP supporters, but loyalists of the defunct Aman committee whose leaders proudly claim that “they have nothing to do with the PPP.”

Baloch does explain, however, why they accepted PPP tickets for their candidates - one for NA-248 and two for PS-108 and PS-109. “The PPP made a deal with the elders committee,” he said. “I have nothing to do with it. I am a neutral man.”



The few remaining PPP loyalists are, however, upset that the party has joined hands with “criminals” and insisted they are not PPP candidates. “I worked with Bhutto, his and our daughter Benazir, but it seems like the party is breathing its last in Lyari now,” admitted a senior party leader from the neighbourhood, pointing out that these candidates have never even been party workers. “Today, they are with us and tomorrow they can leave.”

When all PPP candidates submitted an affidavit to party chief Makhdoom Amin Fahim, declaring they will not change their loyalties, the candidates from Lyari reportedly submitted theirs to Uzair Baloch reaffirming their loyalty to him and not the PPP.

“Sardar Uzair is our leader,” said Akhtar Lasi, a group leader while he was busy writing a message on the wall outside Lyari General Hospital. “The people of this area will have to follow what he orders.”

For their part, the PPP leaders deny they are losing their grip over Lyari. Senator Maula Bux Chandio told The Express Tribune that, “The residents of Lyari cannot even think about voting against the PPP because the party is more important to them than any individual.”

Calling it complete propaganda, Chandio insisted the party jiyalas will prefer to die than change their loyalty. “One should keep in mind that Lyari was PPP stronghold and it will continue to be one.”

Lyari is a precious seat for the PPP

The PPP had hoped to field Bilawal Bhutto Zardari for the Lyari seat, insisting it was their second home.

However, the police operation in the neighbourhood and the registration of FIRs against some PAC activists irked the committee leadership, who warned the PPP from entering the area. They also declared they will oppose Bilawal if he contested from the seat.

This led to a massive anti-PPP campaign in which the PAC held meetings with all parties that stood against the PPP and removed all party posters. A few feathers were also ruffled within the PPP as a result and the party started negotiations with the elders committee, which came into being after the government banned the Aman committee in 2011.

Lyari is prestigious to the party since this is where Benazir Bhutto contested her first elections in 1988. She secured 62,246 votes defeating Jamshed Ahmed Khan, a joint candidate of the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad. She also held her Valima reception in Lyari.

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