Margin of victory

The MQM has demonstrated that it is a force that cannot easily be eliminated from Karachi’s politics or left out of the equation when the future of the city is planned. Its massive win in the NA-246 by-election, a seat it has commanded for decades, drove home the point with candidate Kanwar Naveed collecting 95,644 votes. The combined total from the PTI’s Imran Ismail and JI’s Rashid Naseem, who polled 24,821 and 9,056 votes respectively, still fell nearly three times less than the MQM man’s total. For the PTI, which had made loud claims of making its mark in Karachi and vanquishing the MQM, this is obviously not encouraging. It is time the party learned that deeds, not words, speak louder. It must now focus on the constituencies it does hold in Karachi and carry out work that helps it build a more solid foothold than the one it now does. To be realistic, NA-246 was never going to go into anyone’s hands except those of the MQM. The constituency lies in the heartland of the party’s mainly ethnic support base. The only reasons for the some flickering of doubt had arisen because of the immense pressure the MQM has been under, locked in a problem with the military establishment. The raid by Rangers on its Nine-Zero headquarters, the arrest of the man said to be the mastermind behind the killing of Dr Imran Farooq, the questioning of the party’s chief Altaf Hussain for over five hours in money-laundering cases by the London police and the falling out between Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad and Altaf Hussain after so many years during which Ibad had remained a central figure in the MQM all played a part in creating this perception of weakness. Across the constituency, banners, flags and posters of the MQM dominated every alley. There were almost no signs of visibility for the PTI and the JI; and even if the two had allied it is obvious they would have made only a slighter greater dent in the MQM’s margin of victory.
Given the tensions that had prevailed between the two parties in the run up to the polls, it was an achievement that balloting on Thursday proceeded without any major incident of violence. Credit for this must go to the Rangers who managed the security aspects of the process and were able to prevent any incident which could have an impact on polls. However, this was a single constituency where the Rangers were able to maintain tight security, ensuring all citizens carried ID cards. It would be wrong to conclude that during any electoral process spread out over a larger number of constituencies they would be able to ensure the same degree of efficiency and success without greater support of equipment and technology. This is something we need to note for the future. What the election proves, with tight security arrangements generally preventing any unruliness but also, according to the MQM, greatly slowing down the casting of ballots, is that for any political force to replace the MQM in areas where it matters, it will have to work harder than merely looking for easy opportunities that may come when the MQM finds itself on the back foot due to external pressures. If it had really been thought that Imran Khan could make quick inroads here, this has been proven wrong. Lessons come our way from the events in NA-246. We can be grateful there was no major incident of violence apart from a skirmish between MQM and PTI workers at the end of the contest. We also know that quashing Altaf or reducing the influence of the party he commands will always be an extremely complex task. The presence of the MQM is woven into the core of Karachi. It cannot be disentangled overnight and it is therefore necessary to think of strategies that take the party along as the future of our largest city is planned.