Not as massive as expected, but PSP rally still manages to impress

Karachi: For a party which is only a month old, the Mustafa Kamal-led Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) pulling in a few thousand supporters for its first public rally on Sunday certainly was not a small feat, but the crowd was not as large as it had expected.

PSP leaders had predicted the turnout to be over 0.2 million at its public gathering at Bagh-e-Jinnah.

At the same venue, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had staged massive rally on December, 25 2011.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s “Empowered Women, Strong Pakistan” rally on February 19, 2012, in which the participants were mainly female supporters of the party, was even larger than the one staged by the PTI.

While the debate on the actual numbers of participants will probably go on, it can be safely be said that the gathering on Sunday was not as big as those staged by the MQM and the PTI. However, the PSP did manage to attract members of different communities to its rally which looked charged and committed.

Most of them belonged to the Urdu speaking community –families present there in were in a large number.

“[Mustafa] Kamal bhai has appeared as an alternative to save our [Urdu-speaking] community,” said Muhammad Faisal, a participant of the rally who claimed to be a former MQM unit in-charge and a resident of North Nazimabad.

“We have suffered a lot because of the man sitting in London and exploiting our community,” he added.

“The community members are now speaking their hearts. We have witnessed what the MQM has been doing to satisfy the greed of the man who had left the community back in 1992.”

Joining the discussion, another PSP supporter, a food vendor, said he had suffered difficult times during the strikes called by the MQM.

“I have breathed a sigh of relief after the Rangers started the operation in Karachi. It was really difficult when MQM supporters forcibly shut down my stall during strikes,” he added.  

Wearing a volunteer card, a young man, who requested anonymity, claimed that he was a former member of an MQM sector office and many of his friends still working at the party’s offices were waiting for the dust to settle so that they could then decide whether they should join the PSP or not.

“Kamal bhai is well-respected in the community and the people know that he’s speaking the truth but waiting to let the MQM go down further so that they can join the PSP without any fear.”

Seating arrangements

The organisers had placed seats in six blocks, leaving a passage to walk in between.

As to how many seats were placed in the ground was another debate as they were not apparently 0.1 million as claimed by PSP leader Anis Qaimkhani

On the vertical corners of the venue, food courts were set up while a wide area was left empty both behind the stage and in front of the walkthrough gates at the entrance of the ground closer to Numaish Chowrangi.

The seating block set up near the stage on its left side was filled by 4pm with male supporters mostly belonging to the Pashtun, Sindhi, Baloch and Seraiki communities.

The supporters looked charged and excited; however, they could not explain much as to why they were supporting the new party.

However, turning to other the blocks of the seating arrangement, the supporters were more responsive to questions.

“[The] PSP is the future of Karachi. As the PTI has lost whatever it had gained in the city, Mustafa Kamal has emerged as another option to be tested against the status-quo parties destroying the economic hub of the country,” said a woman who had brought her two children to the rally.

Claiming to be former activists of the All Pakistan Muttahida Students Organisation, a group of five young students lashed out at the MQM and its chief.

When they were asked about the allegation that Kamal had been launched by the establishment against the MQM, a student of the University of Karachi, said: “Almost all major leaders of Pakistan have been accused of taking dictation from the establishment. If the same allegation is being made against Kamal bhai, we are hopeful that he too will become a great leader of the country.”

The students refused to believe the allegations and were of the opinion that the PSP could be the political solution to the Karachi operation as the law-enforcement agencies could not clean up the mess by using power.