PTI fans dream of alliance with MQM
Both parties have educated people in their ranks, aim to bring marginalised sections of society into parliament
KARACHI:
Only if Imran Khan revisits his stance on the division of Sindh, Shauqat Shareef is willing to lend him his support.
“If Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) wants to gain a strong foot-hold in Karachi, they have to understand that the residents of Karachi want a separate province,” claimed 69-year-old Shareef, who has been a supporter of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and dreams of an alliance between his two favourite parties. Sitting at the sit-in at Nursery, Shareef listed the similarities he saw in the two parties. “Haider Abbas Rizvi of the MQM has the great persona similar to that of PTI’s Asad Umar,” he said “They both sound sane when they speak, unlike other politicians.”
Shareef appreciates how both the parties have educated people in their ranks and how they both aim to bring the marginalised sections of society into parliament.
The Nursery sit-in hosted other PTI supporters who were fans of the MQM. Abid Iqbal, 22, who is a PTI activist from Manzoor Colony, thanked the MQM for brining drinking water lines to their area five years ago. “I believe that a coalition between the MQM and the PTI can bring prosperity to this region.” Iqbal has even morphed a photograph of the leaders of the two parties, Altaf Hussain and Imran Khan, and put it up as his Facebook profile picture. Even the PTI leaders at the Nursery sit-in appreciated the fact that the government and the MQM did not create any hurdles for them. Asad Umar found MQM’s stance praiseworthy.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 13th, 2014.
Only if Imran Khan revisits his stance on the division of Sindh, Shauqat Shareef is willing to lend him his support.
“If Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) wants to gain a strong foot-hold in Karachi, they have to understand that the residents of Karachi want a separate province,” claimed 69-year-old Shareef, who has been a supporter of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and dreams of an alliance between his two favourite parties. Sitting at the sit-in at Nursery, Shareef listed the similarities he saw in the two parties. “Haider Abbas Rizvi of the MQM has the great persona similar to that of PTI’s Asad Umar,” he said “They both sound sane when they speak, unlike other politicians.”
Shareef appreciates how both the parties have educated people in their ranks and how they both aim to bring the marginalised sections of society into parliament.
The Nursery sit-in hosted other PTI supporters who were fans of the MQM. Abid Iqbal, 22, who is a PTI activist from Manzoor Colony, thanked the MQM for brining drinking water lines to their area five years ago. “I believe that a coalition between the MQM and the PTI can bring prosperity to this region.” Iqbal has even morphed a photograph of the leaders of the two parties, Altaf Hussain and Imran Khan, and put it up as his Facebook profile picture. Even the PTI leaders at the Nursery sit-in appreciated the fact that the government and the MQM did not create any hurdles for them. Asad Umar found MQM’s stance praiseworthy.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 13th, 2014.