‘Too little, too late’: Did Lyari snub PPP’s attempt to reconcile?

Residents claim most participants came from other parts of Karachi or lower Sindh.

KARACHI:

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairperson and former president, Asif Ali Zardari, stepped into Lyari’s famed Kakri ground, 27 years after he had tied the knot with former prime minister Benazir Bhutto at the historic venue.

On Sunday, the political party, in a bid to dispel the impression that it has lost ground in Lyari, held a significant public gathering at Kakri Ground, where its founding chairperson, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had conducted his first-ever public gathering in 1967 and announced to open the initial office of the PPP in the metropolis. In contrast to that time, however, most of the participants were not from Lyari, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Amid the vociferous slogans of ‘Kal bhi Bhutto zinda tha, aaj bhi Bhutto zinda hai,’ residents of what the PPP’s top leadership describes as its ‘second home’ and a ‘veritable fortress’ appeared seemingly indifferent to the activities as they sat in nearby streets, restaurants and cafes.



Even the arrival of caravans — the buses and cars carrying enthusiastic PPP supporters from Keamari, Bin Qasim and Gadap Town and other districts, such as Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Thatta and Badin — did not seem to cool their anger, arising from what they termed ‘years of disregard’. A large convoy, led by PPP leader Syed Owais Muzaffar, had arrived from Sajawal and Badin. “This convoy is never-ending,” he claimed, while speaking to the media at Sharae Faisal. PPP Senator Saeed Ghani, however, dismissed the claim, saying most of the participants were from Lyari itself. “Only a small number of people came from outside Lyari,” he told The Express Tribune.

“Dafa karo, hamara kya kaam? [Forget it, how does it concern us?],” retorted an elderly Sakina Bibi when asked about her plans to attend the rally as she passed by the Kakri ground. “Hum ko kya de ga ye log? [What will these people do for us?]”

A disgruntled PPP worker, Abdullah Baloch, told The Express Tribune that the residents of Lyari had waited for five years to accord a warm welcome to their leader Zardari as the president of Pakistan. “Had he visited Lyari even once during that time, the party would not have seen such indifference by the residents today.”

Baloch added that the party’s leadership, while ignoring the youngsters as well as die-hard workers since the time of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, had awarded tickets to the nominees of the banned Peoples Amn Committee — MNA Shahjahan Baloch, MPA Javed Nagori and MPA Sania Naz — for the 2013 general elections.

Muhammad Saleem Baloch, sitting with some friends at a cafe in Moosa Lane, said that the ‘daughter of Lyari’, Benazir Bhutto, had never felt the need to cordon off the whole of Lyari during her visits. “Today, each and every street leading to the Kakri Ground has been cordoned off with containers and barricades,” he added. “Is this the way you return to your ‘home’?” he questioned angrily.

All routine and commercial activities within a kilometre of the Kakri ground had been sealed by the authorities since the previous evening. “All the shops here have been closed by the police since Saturday evening. It is like a partial curfew in the whole area,” said Ibrahim, who runs a shop in Kharadar.

However, not all of Lyari residents shared the same feelings. For an excited Khair Bibi Baloch, her support and vote for the PPP was unconditional. “Ye ishq ka sauda hai, lain dain ka kya sawal nahi [This is a matter of love, there is no give and take in this],” she said. “My vote will always remain for the PPP.”

Similar was the excitement of Muhammad Rafiq, a rickshaw driver by profession and a resident of Bheempura, who happened to have been present at the wedding ceremony of Zardari with Benazir Bhutto. “This is the first time I will be seeing my leader after 27 years,” he said as his four children, clad in clothes resembling PPP flags, shouted slogans in support of the party.

For Abdul Rasheed Baloch, a resident of Nawa Lane, the party’s ignorance to the plight of Lyari’s residents has resulted in discontentment even among the die-hard PPP supporters. “But it is never too late to learn from past mistakes. Lyari nevertheless belongs to the PPP.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 27^th, 2015.