The PPP’s win

By our correspondents
July 11, 2017

The PPP – whose base of power had been restricted to rural Sindh in recent years – won an important by-election for the PS-114 seat in Karachi on Sunday, leading many to rethink the idea that the party is politically dead. The winning candidate, Saeed Ghani, won comfortably over the MQM with the PML-N finishing third and the PTI a miserable fourth. The victory is a vital one not just for reviving the PPP’s fortunes a year before the next elections but for the lesson they teach the party about how best to be electorally relevant again. The seat had been won by the contentious Irfanullah Marwat in 2013 and the by-election was needed after his victory was voided by an election tribunal and he lost all court appeals against that decision. Originally, the PPP was considering asking for Marwat’s support to win the by-election. However, that decision was overruled, reportedly by Bakhtawar and Aseefa Bhutto Zardari, because of past allegations against Marwat. Marwat then offered his support to the PTI, whose dismal showing is a sign that the old ‘electables’ may not hold quite the same sway as they once did. The lesson here for the PPP is to unburden itself of the sycophants and hangers-on who have given the party a reputation for corruption and mismanagement. The party needed a face-lift and in PS-114 it may just have got that.

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There are few people better suited to representing a better PPP than Saeed Ghani. He is a lifelong trade unionist who was always been active in grassroots organising. He worked his way up through the ranks in the PPP, starting by running for local elections in 2011. At a time when party tickets are sold to the highest bidder, Ghani comes as a refreshing change. The election brings good news too for the MQM-Pakistan, despite appeals from the MQM-London to boycott the election. The party seems to have recovered from its split and the Rangers action against it to remain a force in Karachi. The MQM comfortably outpolled the PTI, the party which was the second largest vote-getter in Karachi in 2013 but has since fractured and essentially collapsed. No one was better positioned to pick up any lost MQM support than the PTI but its preference for protest over politics and a lack of interest in Karachi from the national leadership has left it as an afterthought in the city. With just over a year left to the next elections, it seems like the electoral battle in Karachi will once again be between the MQM and the PPP.

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