As the legacy of Abdullah Murad lives on, can blood avert a change of guard in Deh Thano?

Karachi
It is said he would walk around the whole of his constituency, meeting friends and supporters, sipping tea with them at roadside stalls and inquiring after their problems. People would gather around him and talk their hearts out; such was the charisma of Abdullah Murad Baloch.
Elected as member of the provincial assembly for the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) from PS-127 (NA-257) in Malir, Murad was the first and remains the only person to have won in this particular constituency, considered a stronghold of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), as he swept to victory in 2002.
Gunned down on March 6, 2004, in Al-Falah Society where he was born and raised, Murad remains a revered figure in both the urban and rural areas of Malir more than a decade after his brutal assassination.
He was targeted a day after three police officials, including an SHO, were sent on a remand for the murders of two minor girls, Sassi and Hajra. The bodies of the girls were found from a hospital under the use of the Gadap police, and the area fell under his constituency.
Murad, it is said, fought to get the FIRs registered and the culprits put behind bars. Following his assassination, the SHO was released from the jail.
Where his modesty appeared to have enraptured the residents of Deh Thano, a union council of District Council Karachi – a separate local body set up for the city’s rural and coastal areas, those who never got to cross paths with the man, would always remember him as the one who doused himself in petrol and threatened self-immolation during an assembly session.
All this to get the provincial lawmakers to pass a bill against illegal excavation of sand and gravel (Reti Bajri) from the Malir River; a practice gradually eating away the livelihood of the people settled along the city's greenbelt.
Deh Thano
Falling under the NA-258 (PS-128, PS-129 and PS-130) constituency, Deh Thano has a population of 12,000 with around 6,000 registered voters, and is a blend of the Kalmati Baloch, Khaskheli, Jokhio, Domki and Jagdal castes among others.
Known to be a through and through PPP constituency for the national assembly – with the MQM dominating over the provincial assembly seats – the ruling provincial party, for the first time in 40 years, lost to the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz’s (PML-N) candidate, Hakeem Baloch, in the 2013 general elections.
Although not contesting the election on a PPP ticket, “Hakeem won the election because his campaign was centred on Shaheed Abdullah Murad,” said Ali Nawaz, an area resident.
Come 2015 and the local bodies polls, the area once again became the talk of Malir Town, however, with a significant change in the dynamics.
The PPP, this time around, has fielded Abdullah's eldest son, Salman Murad, for the post of district councillor on the party's panel. He would also be nominated as the PPP's candidate for the mayor’s post for the city's suburbs.
Surrounded by a crowd of ardent PPP supporters, Salman, an established real estate investor – a business he inherited from his father, made no attempts to boast of matching his father's legacy while speaking to The News, but politely expressed the hope to do justice with his voters.
“Both Abdullah Murad and the PPP are my identity. I am as much a part of the party as my father was,” he said, while responding to a question with respect to his father's larger-than-life personality. For him, Deh Thano's polls would be a one-sided affair, with the PPP set to sweep all the seats.
Promising infrastructural development, betterment of health, education and sports standards, Salman, however, claimed to focus more on water and electricity sectors – a problem which all too frequently brings life at a standstill in the locality.
Not a part of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board's (KWSB) water distribution network, the area mostly relies on tube wells or boring-water. To address the issue, he claimed of providing water to the area through the K-III water plant, through the Memon Goth and Jam Goth areas. As for the electricity problem, he promised to devise a proper strategy to deal with the K-Electric.
The opposition
With the Jamaat-e-Islami also in the run, the main opposition to the PPP is the Awami Ittehad panel, supported by local influential politicians including serving State Minister for Communication Abdul Hakeem Baloch. The panel appeared completely aware of the challenge and seemed well prepared to face it.
MB Baloch – Salman’s direct rival for the post of district councillor – who has also served as the area's Naib Nazim during former president General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf's tenure, while speaking of the elder Murad said that he was a brilliant worker and a good human being.
However, he questioned, “How long will the PPP look to garner votes in the name of its Shaheeds. What do they have to show for the past almost eight years that they have ruled Sindh?”
Criticising the party's performance, Baloch said the PPP had access to federal funds for five years and the provincial funds for eight, but it has failed to deliver. “Had the party done its job fairly, we would not have had the courage to stand against it.”
For every developmental project initiated in the area, the PPP demanded a 46 percent commission, he claimed.
“It doesn't matter that Murad's son is contesting the elections, given that the party's popularity has dwindled to the extent that it had to conduct a door-to-door campaign to collect funds.”
As far as the panel's manifesto was concerned, it had more or less the same to offer. However, speaking of his previous tenure, Baloch claimed he had the area’s sewerage system fixed and would further improve on it after being elected, besides also focusing on eradicating the persistent water and electricity crisis.
For Sharif Baloch and Ghulam Mohammad, the area was and will always be the PPP’s and Salman would prove to be its Abdullah Murad. However, for a number of people present at Awami Ittehad's election office, the party simply does not stand a chance.