‘Back to work’: Karachi’s main political parties vow to regain lost glory in upcoming elections
KARACHI: Once a powerful force in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, but facing years of state-led repression, the Muttahida Quami Movement Pakistan Party faces total collapse in the South Asian country of 241 million people. He vowed to regain the glory that was lost during the war. Elections are next month.
Founded in 1984 by Altaf Hussain, who fled a murder conviction in Pakistan in 1991 and is living in Britain, the secular MQM is a Muhajir group in the city of Karachi, made up of Urdu-speakers who emigrated from India after independence. Through loyal community support, it has dominated Karachi’s politics and commerce for decades. In 1947.
While the party promotes a secular politics staunchly opposed to armed groups, it was also believed to be involved in running the violent enforcement division that has dominated the city’s criminal economy for decades. But since 2013, a paramilitary-led crime crackdown has shaken the MQM’s power base, with authorities arresting scores of MQM members and charging them with torture, murder and extortion in a bid to maintain control over the city. did. The MQM denies any link to the crime and accuses paramilitary groups of a series of extrajudicial killings of its members, which the MQM denies.
In August 2016, police filed treason charges against Mr. Hussein after he incited his supporters to attack the offices of a television station, and stormed and locked down the party’s headquarters. This was the first incursion into the heavily defended party headquarters since the last military raid. 1992.
Since then, the MQM’s fortunes have declined, with many key leaders distancing themselves from Hussein, and the party itself split into three factions: MQM-P, MQM-London, and Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP). In 2018, the party suffered a decisive blow when Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf, led by former cricketer Imran Khan, emerged as Karachi’s largest party in that year’s general elections.
But this year, after the MQM-P announced its merger with the PSP and the return of the long-disgruntled Dr. Farooq Sattar, once Hussein’s right-hand man, to the party, the MQM was promoted as a “better party”. I look forward to the election on August 8th. , a much more effective “party.”
Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, leader of MQM-P since February 2018. (Provided)
“We took back Karachi with a mass rally on Sunday to declare the results of the February 8, 2024 elections,” Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, leader of the MQM-P since February 2018, told Arab News . In an interview this week, he mentioned the political rally that took place at Karachi’s famous Bagh-E-Jinna ground last Sunday.
“Karachi is back to business and Karachi is back to its people. The original mission awaits Karachi.”
Siddiqui said the rally was a demonstration of Karachi residents’ opposition to President Hussain’s call to boycott the vote and eliminate the MQM-P.
“We do not feel any threat from boycott claims,” he said.
Karachi’s governing political party faces major challenges as the city of nearly 18 million people struggles with crumbling infrastructure and severe shortages of electricity, water, housing, transportation, education and jobs.
“In fact, we have a very good case to put before the people,” Siddiqui said, adding that the people of Karachi have been voting for the MQM for decades, precisely because of water and public transport. He argued that this is because it has helped solve fundamental problems in institutions and other institutions.
However, he said the MQM’s “unannounced ban” had eroded the party’s fortunes in recent years.
“The MQM has been struggling to survive since August 22, 2016 (violence),” Siddiqui said, referring to Hussain’s anti-national speeches that led to the crackdown on party offices and the subsequent split in party membership. Ta.
“No one believed that the MQM would continue as a political party even after our leadership was (banned).”
However, even after leaving the party “due to political turmoil and pressure and maneuvering against the MQM (by the Rangers paramilitary group)”, Siddiqui continued to approach leaders, persuade them to rejoin the party, and go to great lengths to rebuild the party. He said he has been working hard.
He acknowledged that the military, which has always played a major role in Pakistani politics, did not oppose the party’s merger with disgruntled members or factions.
“Maybe they don’t have any influence, but now they (the military) did not oppose our (MQM-P) unity. The only reason (we were able to unite) was because of the MQM merger. The opposition to it no longer exists.”
The party is therefore ready to face the next elections with renewed vigor and a determination to focus politics on issues and not leaders, Siddiqui said.
“My mindset was ‘manzil nahin renuma chahiye’ (we need a leader, not a destination),” the MQM-P leader said for decades on billboards and other He mentioned the politics of MQM, which he has focused on. Many independent analysts claim it is a cult of Altaf Hussain.
“Manzil (destination) is now the only way and we are moving very quickly towards our goal and destination, as God desires.”