Lyari divided over Nabil Gabol’s return to PPP

While some residents are happy with his return, others deem him irrelevant to Lyari’s politics;PPP’s South district leaders bemoan they were not consulted before allowing Gabol back into the party

Nabil Gabol, who had ended his 25-year association with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) by joining the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in March 2013, announced returning to the PPP on Wednesday.

In a meeting with PPP supremo Asif Ali Zardari at the Bilawal House, Gabol expressed complete confidence in the leadership of Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, said a statement. Gabol’s son Nadir was also present in the meeting.

Gabol told the media that his meeting with Zardari was quite pleasant. “I have been a diehard jiyala from the beginning. All my focus would now be on reorganising the party in Karachi,” he said.

Lyari was the epicentre of the Gabol family’s political dynasty until his departure from the PPP. Gabol’s grandfather Allah Bakhsh defeated Sir Abdullah Haroon in the 1937 legislative assembly polls, while his uncle Abdul Sattar on the PPP ticket defeated Mahmood Haroon in 1970. Nabil himself was a five-time winner from Lyari on the PPP ticket since 1988.

However, after strengthening the now proscribed Peoples Aman Committee (PAC), led by Uzair Jan Baloch, and repeatedly being sidelined by the PPP leadership, he started mulling over leaving the party.

A day after gangsters associated with the PAC killed Arshad Pappu in a gruesome manner on March 17, 2013, Gabol joined the MQM. At that time Gabol had said he was frustrated by the PPP’s policies, which had “neglected and destroyed” Lyari.

In Gabol the MQM believed the party had found a strong candidate in Lyari, where it always had insignificant presence. In the 2008 general elections, Gabol, still a PPP leader, had won Lyari’s NA-248 constituency by securing 84,217 votes and defeating the MQM’s Wasiullah Lakho, who could bag only 6,326 votes. Lakho later joined the PAC and is considered among the few feared gang commanders still on the run.

In the 2013 general polls, however, Gabol secured only 6,489 votes against the PPP’s Shah Jahan Baloch who bagged 84,530 votes. The MQM supported Gabol’s candidacy for NA-246, one of the MQM’s safe constituencies, where the party’s headquarters Nine Zero is situated. Gabol secured 137,874 votes.

In February 2015 Gabol announced leaving the MQM and resigned from his National Assembly seat, saying that he was “a misfit in the MQM”.

What is Lyari thinking?

When MQM leaders and workers had given Gabol a warm welcome on his joining the party four years ago, a firework display lit up the sky over the football stadium in Chakiwara, where residents danced and distributed sweets on his exit from the PPP. But nothing extraordinary was witnessed in Lyari on his return to the party.

The locals gave mixed reactions this time round. Shuja Kutchhi, a resident of Khadda Market, supported Gabol’s decision to rejoin the PPP. “We are frustrated with gangs and parliamentarians from Lyari backed by them. Gabol belonged to a political family, which never involved itself in violence.”

However, residents in Baloch-dominated areas were upset with the PPP for allowing Gabol’s return. Ahmed Shah Kalmati, a resident of Chakiwara, said Gabol had now become irrelevant to Lyari’s politics, because after joining the MQM he also supported rival gangs against Uzair Baloch, disturbing law and order in the town. “Like Uzair Baloch and Baba Ladla, Gabol is also responsible for the gang mess in Lyari.”

Dr Jamil Ahmed, the then DIG South, had claimed in a press conference in August 2015 that Gabol had asked Ghaffar Zikri, one of the heads of Lyari’s gangs, to create trouble in Lyari and that Rauf Nazim, another gang leader, would provide him arms, ammunition and money for this purpose.

No option but the PPP

Rumours had been rife that Gabol was planning to join either the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) or the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. However, a section in the PTI Sindh opposed his inclusion in the party. After that, he renewed his efforts to rejoin the PPP and finally succeeded.

Abu Bakar Baloch, a journalist from Lyari, said the PPP was looking for popular Lyari candidates for the upcoming general elections.

“After Gabol’s return, the PPP has found an appropriate candidate, but the situation has now changed to a great extent and it is premature to say anything about his acceptance among Lyari’s residents.” He, however, added that the party’s ticket mattered for winning the polls in Lyari.

PPP leaders in District South said the party leadership did not consult them before allowing Gabol back into the party. “Outside Lyari Gabol is a big name, but in Lyari he is most infamous,” said a former PPP office-bearer from the district.

He claimed that Gabol could not find a suitable candidate for the December 2015 local government elections, but he also campaigned against the PPP’s candidates.

PPP sources said the party leadership would not give tickets to its incumbent parliamentarians from Lyari – Shah Jahan Baloch, Sania Naz and Rauf Nagori – because of their links with the banned PAC.

Besides Gabol, Haji Qasim Baloch, the PPP’s former district president, Mehmood Hashim, former Lyari Town nazim, and Nadia Gabol, an MPA and Gabol’s niece, are strong aspiring candidates for Lyari seats in the upcoming general elections, they added.