Over the past few weeks we had pointed out that Karachi and the province of Sindh will become the hub of political activity as elections approach. This is exactly what has happened and almost all political parties have started to mobilize in the city. The general belief is that the city is up for taking after the disintegration of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is likely to gain from this disintegration but other players are also in the run. The Farooq Sattar led Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan is the strongest contender among them but the party will face its real challenge when it goes to the voters as a separate identity from Altaf Hussain, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement founder. Others in the run for a piece of the cake include Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the party led by former MQM-er Mustafa Kamal, the Pak Sarzameen Party.
So what has made the city the hub of political activity? The answer is simple; the sheer number of national assembly seats from Karachi makes the city very important in the country’s overall politics. If we take a look at the election results since the 70’s Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has been dominating election results bar a few exceptions since its emergence in the late eighties. During the 1970 elections, religious parties, specifically the Jamaat Islami (JI) and the Markazi Jamiat-e-Ulema-Pakistan (MJUP), did quite well. The seats were closely contested, but the PPP could only secure 2 out of the 7, and was runners up on two more. The religious parties won 4 out of 7, while the remaining seat was won by Maulana Zafar Ahmad Ansari – contesting as an independent candidate, backed by JI. Then came the 1988 elections, the MQM had arrived by now and the party swept elections in Karachi claiming 11 out of the 13 seats, two seats were won by the PPP. Two years later in 1990, the PPP lost more ground in the city and was restricted to just one seat out of the thirteen available with MQM claiming all others.
The 1993 elections were boycotted by MQM, the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) was the major beneficiary of MQM’s withdrawal and the party grabbed six out of the 13 available seats, the JI was victorious on one whereas the PPP equaled PMLN’s tally by claiming six. As expected MQM came back in 1997 elections and once again claimed top spot on the leader board, the party won ten seats. The PPP suffered a major setback and could snatch only one with PMLN claiming two.
Then came the 2002 elections, which saw a mini revival for the religious parties in the city with the Muttahida Majlis–e–Amal claiming five of the twenty seats in the city. PMLN was wiped out from the city, PPP claimed two seats, and one went to Mohajir Qaumi Movement (Haqiqi) with MQM claiming twelve seats.
The 2008 elections which are unanimously regarded as the fairest elections in Pakistan’s political history brought expected results in Karachi. MQM’s dominance increased further with the party claiming 17 out of the twenty seats, the remaining went to PPP. The 2013 elections were a similar story the country’s three largest parties PMLN, PPP and PTI were restricted to just one seat each with the other seventeen seats going to MQM. The coming elections will probably be the first elections since 1970 that will see a large number of political parties competing for share of seats in the city. How the city’s political scenario will pan out in the next few months will be interesting to see.
Karachi has become the hub of political activity in recent weeks.
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