NA-246 by-election: MQM-PTI faceoff heats up poll battle in Karachi

Convoy of NA-246 candidate Imran Ismail attacked near Jinnah Ground

KARACHI:

The fight for Karachi’s NA-246 constituency heated up on Tuesday after activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf came face to face in Azizabad and the Imran Khan-led party registered a case against unknown MQM workers for the resulting faceoff.

With the by-election on the seat vacated by MQM’s Nabeel Gabol scheduled for April 23, electioneering by both parties is in full swing in the area considered an MQM bastion for over two decades. PTI’s candidate Imran Ismail and other leaders were visiting the Jinnah Ground to chalk out a plan for the party’s upcoming political gathering on April 19 when scores of MQM supporters also arrived at the spot.

At first the rival workers started shouting pro-party slogans but the situation turned violent when Ismail’s caravan was attacked by hooligans. Television footage showed men smashing the windows of a white Toyota Land Cruiser with cricket bats as it drove off. The windows of another car were also smashed with bricks and stones.



Though both the parties blamed each other, Azizabad police station SHO Asimur Rehman was suspended by SSP Central Noman Siddiqui over his failure to control the crowd.

The police have registered an FIR (96/2015) on the complaint of PTI leader Aziz Afridi, who contended that MQM workers were instigated by Altaf Hussain’s speeches to attack the PTI leaders. In a tit for tat move, MQM leaders also registered an FIR against the PTI for ransacking property at Jinnah Ground.

PTI reacts

While addressing a press conference, PTI leader Ismail blamed MQM activists for manhandling and injuring his colleagues. “Our people were manhandled by the MQM goons who hit our men with sticks and damaged our cars by throwing stones,” he said.

“If they [MQM] think we will run away, they are wrong. We will go there every day,” he said, adding that the MQM did not want anyone to hold rallies at Jinnah Ground or to visit Nine-Zero.



Ismail said no party other than the PTI had dared to challenge the MQM because of its violent attitude. “When we visited the ground, people, including children, welcomed us knowing that Imran Khan’s rally would be held there,” he claimed.

PTI chief Imran then took to micro-blogging website Twitter to vent out his anger. “Altaf Hussain is scared of losing; and hence has begun terrorising the electorate. I condemn the fascist tactics of Altaf Hussain and his goons,” he tweeted. “We will not be cowed down by such scare tactics and will liberate Karachi’s citizens from the terror of MQM, InshaAllah.” “Today we saw democracy Altaf Hussain-style in Karachi. No different from the tactics of the Nazi party,” his last tweet said.

MQM responds

At Nine-Zero, the MQM also called a press conference, where Haider Abbas Rizvi claimed PTI workers had disrespected the martyrs monument near Jinnah Ground, which drew a violent response from ‘residents’.

“The PTI leaders reached the area safely and were playing cricket with children when some of their workers tore off Altaf Hussain’s posters and banners, and hurled abuses at the MQM chief,” he claimed. “A few party [MQM] workers along with the neighbours were hurt by these actions and they reacted.”

“NA-246 is the right of every party,” he added. “The MQM wants the election to be held in a peaceful environment. A code of conduct should be formed for the by-elections.”

Rizvi, however, called on the authorities not to grant permission to the PTI to hold a rally on April 19 owing to the party’s ‘violent behaviour’ during its protest sit-ins last year.

In a statement issued by the MQM coordination committee, the party leaders claimed Imran was suffering from ‘Altaf phobia’, which was why his party was resorting to hooliganism in Karachi. Before speaking about Karachi, Imran should get rid of Taliban in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, they said.

Referring to the PTI’s sit-ins last year, the MQM alleged that Imran wanted to derail the democratic system and was waiting for the signal of some umpire, for which he even got the PTV and Parliament House attacked.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 1^st, 2015.