The verdict is out: MQM shows it’s still number one in Karachi

The party has managed to secure almost all seats it won in 2008.

KARACHI: MQM is here to stay. The unofficial results have made it clear that it will remain the dominant party in the city over the next five years.

At the Khursheed Memorial Secretariat, where the party’s workers were compiling results, MQM leader Wasay Jalil said the party has secured almost all seats it had won when Karachi voted in 2008. At that time, it had won 17 National Assembly seats in the city.

This time around, MQM has managed to clinch all but five of the 20 National Assembly seats in Karachi. It suffered a loss in two constituencies - NA-239, which encompasses Mauripur and Keamari, and NA-258, which comprises parts of Gadap and Bin Qasim. On polling day, the party had boycotted the electoral process in NA-248, the heart of Lyari, accusing the Peoples Amn Committee of rigging at polling stations in the locality. Since the results for NA-250 are on hold because of the re-polling at 42 stations, it is unclear how the party has fared in this constituency.



Amongst prominent contestants who have won are the party’s deputy convener Dr Farooq Sattar, who defeated Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate Abdul Aziz Memon to win NA-249. MQM leader Nabil Gabol who won NA-246, MQM’s home turf, claims to have broken records. The jubilant leader had brought ladoos for his party’s workers. “I have received the highest number of votes from across the country. I have broken records.”

Gabol said he would raise his voice to improve the law and order situation in Karachi and push for his party’s stance on restoring the local body system in the city. He called for an electronic voting system in the next elections so that other parties could not get a chance to rig votes. He added that he would challenge the election results from the Lyari seat which he had boycotted.

MQM has also won two National Assembly seats in Hyderabad. It’s candidate for NA-219, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, won the seat as did  Syed Ghulam Shabbir, who had been awarded the party’s ticket for and NA 218.

When it comes to Sindh Assembly seats, the party has unofficially won 30 - two more seats than it did in 2008. The party even managed to win PS-1, a stronghold of PPP.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2013.