Participants welcome: Karachi Awami Ittehad set to make its debut to ‘correct political wrongs’

Manifesto of the new political front expected to be announced next week.

KARACHI: The Karachi Awami Ittehad (KAI), a new political front which promises to take all communities on board to solve their political and social issues, is ready to make its debut next week by launching its manifesto.

After about a dozen meetings at the residence of Abdullah Hussain Haroon, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United Nations, in the last couple of months, the manifesto has been finalised by the participants. The name, Karachi Awami Ittehad, was decided in January with consensus of the participants.

The meetings of the KAI are being attended by elders and political figures of different areas of the city, including Lyari, Keamari, Ibrahim Haidery, Malir and Saddar. The leaders of KAI are in favour of inviting all communities living in the city to join the platform which, according to them, will strive for the rights of the marginalised people.

With representatives of minority groups, lawyers and journalists already on board, the KAI expects that more people will join once the manifesto is shared with the public.

Former Malir town nazim Khuda Dino Shah, Pakistan Workers Party’s Yousuf Masti Khan, Sindh Assembly’s lawmaker Haji Shafi Jamote, Kutchi Rabita Committee’s Akhtar Turk, Jeay Sindh Mahaz Chairperson Riaz Chandio and Minority Alliance’s Mohan Lal are among the names associated with the new organisation.

Presiding over a meeting on Tuesday, Haroon said that all institutions operating in the city have been ruined. “The political parties aren’t playing their due role for the welfare of the common people,” he said.

His comments were backed by Khuda Dino Shah who said that the indigenous communities are being deprived of their basic rights. According to him, it was important to have a platform which would give voice to the concerns of the people given the prevailing social, political and economic situation in Karachi.

According to the manifesto, the KAI will strive for unity, equality and brotherhood among all the residents of Karachi. It will struggle to eliminate religious differences, racism and sectarianism from Karachi. It also aims to struggle for the legal, constitutional and fundamental rights of all the citizens of the city.

Public meetings will be organised in those areas where residents are deprived of basic needs and are facing discrimination of government policies in employment, health, education as well as development of roads and sewerage system.

The KAI also plans to meet different communities and invite them to join so that a stronger platform could be set up.

“People are tired of the policies of mainstream political parties. They need a platform under a strong leadership,” said Mohen Lal while talking to The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2014.