The pendulum-like Karachi politics awaits PTI attention
It is not uncommon among the masses to know that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf has been a concrete reality in recent past of Karachi’s pendulum-like politics. Tracing back to 2011, it was a shocking moment to the political parties to witness one of the biggest show of power at Quaid’s mausoleum, when Imran Khan gathered a tsunami of crowd and thus projected the idea of Naya Pakistan into the politically deprived people of our homeland.
Election commission of Pakistan (ECP) in their report of 2013 general election has shown us the fact that PTI received 8 lakh votes from the city of Karachi, becoming the second biggest party after the ailing and also, immortal MQM.
The dominance of MQM in Karachi politics seemed to be shattering by the emergence of PTI, but the national politics didn’t let that happen.
Not going deep, the 2014 dharna and then Panama papers indulged the opportunists to dismiss Nawaz Sharif from his PMship. Imran Khan along with his senior leadership from then, and until now, has only preferred Punjab in order to show the real picture of Nawaz & Co to the people and thus have maximum seat from the decider state, Punjab.
Coming back to the Karachi politics, a major decision was taken by PTI’s Karachi leadership by joining hands with Jamaat-e-Islami in 2015 local government election. The results were so poor that they only manage to win 6 seats over above 200 In 6 districts of Karachi. This was the time when the over enthusiasts Karachiites realized two things: You can’t underestimate the Muhajir Card, and that perfection doesn’t exist in political parties.
The recent political situation in Karachi has unthinkably been diverted to a chaos. After the creation of PSP by Mustafa Kamal on March 3rd, 2016, and segmentation of MQM into two sects following uncle Altaf’s speech has not only disturbed their voter but has left a void in Karachi’s cultural and political identity.
As the Senate election came nearer and its seats were being booked, the old and manipulated system once again seemed to be rigged by money. The most dramatic story at this point was about MQM-P disintegration (once again). This story relates to Senate as it is said that Kamran Tessori, an MQM leader, had used his back door connection with Farooq Sattar to gain a seat in the upper house. This has infuriated a particular sect of MQM-P, which resulted in an uprising and harsh allegation on their convener. To this day, we have two MQMs, Bahadurabad led by Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and PIB led by Farooq Sattar.
We also have Karachiites in dilemma for who to vote.
To able the Muhajirs to overcome their psychological barrier and make them realize how different political parties have manipulated their rights into their own benefits, PTI has the golden chance of turning their soft political ground into a playing pitch.
But this is only possible if they completely get rid of Godfather, which seems unlikely.
It is not uncommon among the masses to know that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf has been a concrete reality in recent past of Karachi’s pendulum-like politics. Tracing back to 2011, it was a shocking moment to the political parties to witness one of the biggest show of power at Quaid’s mausoleum, when Imran Khan gathered a tsunami of crowd and thus projected the idea of Naya Pakistan into the politically deprived people of our homeland.
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| Tsunami on December 25, 2011 |
Election commission of Pakistan (ECP) in their report of 2013 general election has shown us the fact that PTI received 8 lakh votes from the city of Karachi, becoming the second biggest party after the ailing and also, immortal MQM.
The dominance of MQM in Karachi politics seemed to be shattering by the emergence of PTI, but the national politics didn’t let that happen.
Not going deep, the 2014 dharna and then Panama papers indulged the opportunists to dismiss Nawaz Sharif from his PMship. Imran Khan along with his senior leadership from then, and until now, has only preferred Punjab in order to show the real picture of Nawaz & Co to the people and thus have maximum seat from the decider state, Punjab.
Coming back to the Karachi politics, a major decision was taken by PTI’s Karachi leadership by joining hands with Jamaat-e-Islami in 2015 local government election. The results were so poor that they only manage to win 6 seats over above 200 In 6 districts of Karachi. This was the time when the over enthusiasts Karachiites realized two things: You can’t underestimate the Muhajir Card, and that perfection doesn’t exist in political parties.
The recent political situation in Karachi has unthinkably been diverted to a chaos. After the creation of PSP by Mustafa Kamal on March 3rd, 2016, and segmentation of MQM into two sects following uncle Altaf’s speech has not only disturbed their voter but has left a void in Karachi’s cultural and political identity.
As the Senate election came nearer and its seats were being booked, the old and manipulated system once again seemed to be rigged by money. The most dramatic story at this point was about MQM-P disintegration (once again). This story relates to Senate as it is said that Kamran Tessori, an MQM leader, had used his back door connection with Farooq Sattar to gain a seat in the upper house. This has infuriated a particular sect of MQM-P, which resulted in an uprising and harsh allegation on their convener. To this day, we have two MQMs, Bahadurabad led by Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and PIB led by Farooq Sattar.
We also have Karachiites in dilemma for who to vote.
To able the Muhajirs to overcome their psychological barrier and make them realize how different political parties have manipulated their rights into their own benefits, PTI has the golden chance of turning their soft political ground into a playing pitch.
But this is only possible if they completely get rid of Godfather, which seems unlikely.
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