Political vacuum: PML-N making inroads in PPP’s stronghold

Lyari residents turned up in large numbers for PML-N rally in Lyari on Sunday

KARACHI:

The people in Lyari, the proverbial stronghold of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), are now looking for another political option that can address their basic issues that they believe the PPP has failed to resolve.

A majority of the residents give credit to the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N), for the restoration of law and order in Lyari. The party organised a jalsa on Sunday evening at Hanif Manzil situated at Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai Road, where bullets holes still remind the darkest side of the city's oldest settlement.

Realising the political vacuum and the voters' past inclination towards the PPP, the top leadership of the PML-N, including Senator Saleem Zia, MPA Humayun Muhammad Khan, MPA Haji Shaji Muhammad Jamot, provincial youth wing president Raja Ansari, provincial lawyers' wing president Ghulam Mustafa Advocate, provincial Ulema Mashaikh president Syed Azhar Shah Amdani, Karachi Division president Syed Munawar Raza, Karachi South president Sultan Bahadur and several others participated in the gathering.

Scores of resident attended the jalsa, as a tribute to the party that they believe has restored peace in the area after a long time. "We have a peaceful Lyari because of the PML-N," Abdul Ghani, an aged participant commented. "They [PML-N] don't support criminals at least. We have lost everything supporting the PPP, but we have had enough now," he said.

Addressing the jalsa, Zia said that the peace in Karachi was the result of the sacrifices of its people. "The peace in Karachi is because of Lyari," he declared.

Zia said that it was through the efforts of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that peace was brought back to the area where gangsters had made the lives of residents miserable. "There is no place for criminals in Karachi now," he said, amid cheers and slogans of 'Jeay Mian sahib'.

Speaking about the major issues of Lyari, Suleman Patel, the party's Karachi division vice-president, said: "The people of Lyari are deprived of even basic facilities such as a sewage system, potable water, education and health." He said that the provincial government hadn't seriously addressed Lyari's problems in the last eight years. "The youth is even denied jobs in the private sector," he said, adding that the ruling party had not even provided compensation to the victims' families.

Most youngsters, frustrated with the attitude of the political parties, look towards the PML-N and according to Waqas Khatri, people are joining the party in large numbers. "Young boys want to work with the Nawaz league due to its soft image." He said that though the party had little stakes in the provincial government, its current stance against criminals and terrorists had motivated the common man to rethink their political affiliations.

Addressing the gathering, the PML-N leaders assured the residents that the federal government was committed to restore complete peace across the country, especially in Karachi.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th, 2015.