Constituency profile: ‘It’s hard to pick a candidate in NA-240’

The constituency has pockets of MQM, PPP, ANP and JUI-F supporters.

KARACHI:

The area which falls under NA-240 isn’t exactly the safest place in the city: extortion chits are passed around freely, politically backed target killings as well as gang wars punctuate the daily routine and by virtue of the constituency’s location in District West, militant threats loom large.

But none of these things are what thrust the area into the international spotlight in September last year. For 259 people working at a garment factory in SITE, it was the lax workplace safety procedures which led to their untimely demise. A large number of the ill-fated factory’s workers lived in neighbourhoods close to it, just a short walk away.



Apart from workplace hazards and the volatile law and order situation, there are other problems in this constituency as well. The residents, who belong to the lower-middle class, live in cramped semi-pucca or katcha structures built over around 100 yards. Like neighbouring constituencies, more than half the houses in NA-240 don’t have access to potable water. The literacy rate hovers somewhere around 57 per cent. The menace of land-grabbing has also reared its ugly head here.

But buried underneath the layers of gloom, there are some gems which save face. The constituency is home to Jamia Binoria International - one of the largest Islamic education institutions in the city. Spread out over 12 acres near the SITE police station, the institution is equipped with modern facilities, including computer labs and libraries with access to electronic journals. It also offers distance learning courses via audio lectures on the internet.

Apart from SITE - Pakistan’s largest industrial zone with the biggest financial turnover - the constituency is also home to the famous Shershah scrap market, a treasure trove of spare parts which is located, very conveniently, next to the highway. Just some distance away lies Mewa Shah, Karachi’s oldest and largest graveyard.

A melting pot

Though the constituency has the smallest number of registered voters among the city’s 20 constituencies, it is still ethnically diverse. The Pashtun majority areas include Shershah, Swat Colony, Afridi Colony and Gulshan-e-Ghazi.  The Urdu-speaking community lives in pockets in Islam Nagar, Anjam Colony, Hasrat Mohani Colony, Delhi Colony and Asif Colony while Rexer Lane, Old Golimar and Gulbai are areas where the Baloch are in a majority. NA-240 also has a sizeable Punjabi population and a smaller number of Sindhis.

Meet the candidates

Like neighbouring constituencies, ethnicity has been an immutable force in this political arena in the past. But things may be different this time around as in the past, only PPP and MQM used to hold clout. Sixty-year-old Abdul Hadi, a resident of the area said, “Many parties have emerged recently and now it’s hard for people to choose one.”



MQM’s candidate Khawaja Sohail Mansoor won the seat in the 2008 elections by a margin of about 6,000 votes. He has once again earned his party’s ticket for NA-240. Mansoor has been associated with the MQM since 1986 and is the member of the party’s central executive committee.

Abid Hussain Satti, the deputy general secretary of PPP’s Karachi chapter, has been given the party’s ticket for the seat. He has been associated with PPP since he was a student and enjoys political clout in some parts of the constituency.

ANP has awarded its ticket to Kabir Ahmed Sher, a young candidate in his mid-twenties. He has emerged from a family with a rich legacy of political work under the banner of ANP.

His grandfather Haji Sher Khan served as the president of the party’s Sindh division and his father Haji Bashir Khan is a member of its provincial council. Haji Sher Khan has contested past elections and earned a respectable number of votes.

The activities of religious parties are also in full swing within the constituency. Mufti Faizul Haq is contesting on JUI-F’s ticket, Haq is considered to be one of the major contenders for the seat.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 6^th, 2013.