MQM wants military presence for PS-127 by-polls

Karachi

Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM) chief Dr Farooq Sattar on Sunday raised a demand for the September 8 by-elections to Malir’s PS-127 constituency to be held under the Pakistan Army’s supervision. 

Addressing a press conference in Malir on Sunday evening, Sattar expressed apprehensions over chances of rigging in the PS-127 by-polls. Urging the authorities concerned to ensure army presence in the constituency on the day of voting, he was, however, confident that the MQM would emerge with another electoral victory to reassert its popularity among the city’s voters.  

“Just as we achieved in NA-246, the MQM will sweep the Malir by-polls and it will be yet another record-breaking success,” stated Sattar. 

“They can raze and destroy our sector and unit offices all they want. No matter what structures you pull down, the MQM’s public mandate will not just remain intact, but continue to grow.”

Unlike other constituencies of the national and provincial assemblies of Karachi where by-polls were held in recent months, a frenzied three-way contest is expected in the PS-127, a provincial assembly seat of the rural and urban areas of Malir.

The MQM, though in the throes of an unprecedented power struggle since party founder Altaf Hussain’s August 22 incendiary speech, enters the arena fresh from its resounding victory in Karachi’s mayoral polls and with its mayor and deputy mayor sworn into office.  

The main stakeholders in the constituency’s politics include the ruling Pakistan People’s Party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf - and all of them are confident of winning the seat.

The seat was vacated after the resignation of Ashfaq Ahmed Mangi, an MQM MPA who on April 18 joined the newly-launched Pak Sarzameen Party led by former Karachi mayor Mustafa Kamal.

The constituency comprises a mix of urban and rural areas. Its urban parts include Jaffar Tayyar Society, a Shia majority neighbourhood, and the Gharibabad union council. Dozens of villages including Old Thano, Ghazi Dawood Brohi Goth, Aasoo Goth - where various Baloch and Sindhi tribes and Memons are settled - make up the rural parts.