MQM opposes merger of urban, rural areas in new constituency demarcations

Party lawmakers have gone to court against Sindh government ahead of LG polls

KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) is unhappy with the way the constituencies have been redrawn by the Sindh government as it merges the province's rural and urban areas — regions that the party wishes to keep separate.

Visibly upset with the delimitation carried out ahead of the local government elections scheduled in October, MQM lawmakers Sardar Ahmed, Kunwar Naveed and Dr Farooq Sattar have filed petitions in the Sindh High Court, through their lawyer Farogh Naseem. They have cited the Sindh government and the election commission as respondents and challenged the new demarcation of the constituencies.

"The primary objective of our petitions against delimitation is that the urban areas remain separated from the rural areas," said Ahmed. "Why are they being mixed up?"

'Troubling' areas

The party has so far filed petitions against delimitation in 10 areas of Sindh, including Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Tando Adam, Tando Muhammad and Nawabshah, pointed out MQM Rabita Committee's Aminul Haque.

The party feels that areas in Malir and Korangi districts have been merged into each other, while urban parts of Mirpurkhas, Tando Adam and Tando Muhammad have been joined with rural areas, which dilutes its vote bank.

Hurting vote bank

The MQM is of the belief that their vote bank in urban areas on Sindh has increased but the current delimitation impacts their voting strength negatively. Ahmed explained with the help of an example. If there are 100 MQM votes in one union council of an urban area, and if the area is merged with the rural, then the people who were previously in the rural areas, will give their votes to another political party, limiting MQM's chances of victory.



The party has also called for a fresh census, saying that in areas where the population has increased, the people are not registered and hence demarcation has not been done according to the population.

Political influence

In the court, the MQM pointed out that it is the PPP-led Sindh government that is carrying out the delimitations, and not the election commission. Senator Farogh Naseem, who is currently out of the country, had claimed in a recent press conference, that the delimitation was illegal and called it 'pre-poll rigging'.

"The delimitations are carried out according to the whims and wishes of the Sindh government," he had said. "It is the work of the election commission to carry out delimitation."

Provincial election commissioner Tanveer Zaki brushed aside MQM's accusations and said that it is a political statement. "The work of the delimitation is of the election commission and we will respond in the court against their claims," he said.

PPP Senator Saeed Ghani pointed out that when the delimitation was done according to the MQM's wishes during Musharraf's time and before, the MQM was happy with it. Now when things are being corrected, they have filed complaints, he said. He insisted that it was the election commission that carried out the delimitation process and not Sindh government. "The government is only providing resources to the election commission as it doesn't have manpower and resources," he clarified.

Early decision

Nevertheless, the MQM holds on to hopes that their petitions in court will yield results and the delimitations will be recalled. The MQM has, however, no plans to back out from the areas in which it has been challenged, and it will contest even if the decision does not come in its favour, said Haque.

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