ANP hastens endeavours to reclaim lost turf in city

With the Taliban having lost their hold in Karachi by virtue of the ongoing operation, and a general election to tend to next year, the Awami National Party has embarked on regaining its lost ground by organising a series of political gatherings in the city’s Pashtun neighbourhoods. 

In a bid to woo its supporters, the programmes are being graced by several senior leaders of the party including its chief Asfandyar Wali Khan – expected to visit the metropolis next month after several years.

Another visit that made heads turn is of ANP central secretary general and former Khyber Pakhunkhwa information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, who arrived in Karachi on Wednesday, on a three-day visit.

The former minister on Thursday addressed the provincial convention of the Pashtun Students Federation – ANP’s student wing - held in a hall near Askari Park in the Old Sabzi Mandi area.

On Friday, Hussain visited the Mominabad area to review the progress of the under construction hospital named after the Pashtun stalwart Baacha Khan. He later addressed a gathering of workers at the Baacha Khan Markaz, the party’s provincial headquarter in the Pirabad area.

The ANP’s upcoming events include a rally scheduled to be held on May 7 in Korangi’s Bilal Colony area, to mark the fourth death anniversary of the party’s national assembly candidate from Karachi, Sadiq Zaman Khattak. He was killed along with his four-year-old son a week before the 2013 general election. The attack was claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

On May 12, the party will organise a seminar to honour the memory of those killed in the violence that ensued after deposed chief justice of Pakistan’s, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, arrival at the Karachi airport ten years ago. Around 50 people were killed in different parts of the city.

Followed by the seminar, the party plans to hold a rally on May 21 which would be addressed by the party supremo. The rally is to start from the Karachi airport and end at Valika Ground in SITE. To ensure the event is a success the ANP has formed several committees to look over the event’s arrangements. 

Commenting on the efforts to revive the party in the metropolis, ANP Sindh’s secretary information Hameedullah Khattak said his party was prepared to show its strength in the city after its district and union committees were restructured.

“The ANP is still popular among the city’s Pashtun populace and our organisational activities will be a testament to that,” Khattak told The News. 

Taliban attacks

While the ANP’s descend in the city could be pinned on several reasons, political analysts, however, claimed that attacks on party leaders and political gathering by the Taliban served as the final nail in the coffin.

The TTP’s unabated attacks on the party, especially in district West compelled the party to go underground.

In June 2012, the TTP had threatened ANP leaders in the city to quit the party, remove their flags and banners from atop their homes and shops and close its office or prepare for their wrath.

Khattak said the ANP was the only political party which was targeted throughout the country because of its liberal and progressive politics.

The party lost over 100 activists to the senseless attacks, claimed the ANP leader. Four ANP district presidents, Saeed Ahmed Khan, Ameer Sardar, Dr Ziauddin and Saifullah Afridi, and general secretary Advocate Hanif were among those targeted. 

Several of the party’s leaders either moved back to their hometowns or shifted to Islamabad. The party was forced to shift its political meetings from Baacha Khan Markaz to Mardan House, ANP provincial chief Shahi Syed’s residence in the affluent neighbourhood of DHA. 

Another influential leader of the party Bashir Jan also left the country and sought asylum in the United States.

Under pressure owing to Taliban’s threats, the ANP could not do well in the 2013 general polls, claim the party leaders.

However, the crackdown against criminals in Karachi shattered the TTP’s network as several of its key commanders in the city were either killed or arrested. This is claimed by both the law enforcement officials as well as the party leaders.

Of the most recent event, one of the four TTP militants killed in April 24 shootout in Urdu Bazar included Zahid Afridi, said to be involved in the August 2014 kidnapping for ransom of ANP leader Ajab Khan Lala’s son. According to the Inter Services Public Relation’s (ISPR) statement, Lala’s son was released after a payment of Rs10.5 million.

Other factors

In addition to TTP attacks, poor performance of its two lawmakers elected in 2008 polls, fissures within the party and involvement of its cadres in violence and criminal activities also damaged the ANP in Karachi and provided space to other parties, especially the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the Jammat-e-Islami. Even the sectarian Ahle Sunnat Wal Jammat left no opportunity to exploit the vacuum created in city’s Pashtun localities, analysts observed.

Wakeel Ur Rehman, a journalist, said the ANP utilised the May 12 violence to generate an anti-Muttahida Qaumi Movement rhetoric and won two Sindh assembly seats from the city’s major Pashtun areas after forging alliance with the Pakistan People’s Party.

“The crackdown in the city has also caused a significant decrease in the politics of ethnicity that has had a grip over the city. This has hit the ANP quite hard, since it does not have an ethnic rival against which it could rouse its supporters,” Rehman said.

“In these areas, the PTI, the JI and the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam-Fazl have emerged as key stakeholders, making it difficul for ANP to regain its lost turf.” The ANP’s dismal performance in December 2015 local government elections also corroborate Rehman’s views.

Besides, infighting within the party which resulted in the formation of the ANP-Wali faction also contributed to its downfall. The faction has been joined by two of its former provincial presidents Qamoos Gul Khattak and Fazal Karim Lala among other key leaders. Karim Lala among other key leaders.