ASWJ chief believes PS-128 will be his in next general elections

Allama Aurangzeb Farooqi, central president of the banned Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, had lost to a Muttahida Qaumi Movement candidate in the last general elections by only 202 votes. This time round, however, he is certain that he would claim PS-128, a provincial assembly constituency comprising lower-income neighbourhoods of Landhi Industrial Area.

The man known for his sectarian views has good reasons to be hopeful: the MQM’s inner turmoil, the worst governance of the Pakistan Peoples Party-backed Malir district, successes in the local government polls in the constituency and, most importantly, no candidate from other mainstream political parties can match his stature in the constituency.

Brought up in the impoverished Future Colony locality in the constituency, Farooqi knows the area and its residents. He has already started campaigning for the upcoming elections and, along with his party’s elected LG representatives, area leaders and clerics, he has been visiting various localities through narrow and rickety streets riddled with trash and overflowing gutters, offering condolences and attending funerals, meeting with residents and consulting with elders of various communities and attending cricket tournaments as chief guest.

“Successive governments of both the PPP and the MQM have ignored PS-128 in development work. Today broken, neglected roads, narrow, winding lanes and overflowing sewers speak of years of neglect,” Farooqi said in his recent visit to Future Colony and Dawood Chowrangi, where residents and traders complained of the dismal conditions of the roads, holding the PPP responsible since the party is in power in Sindh as well as District Malir.

“Even the MQM MPA who won from PS-128 through rigging did not visit again to meet his voters. But we shall make them accountable for the excesses with the constituency after wining in the general polls.”

In the 2013 polls Farooqi had secured 23,827 votes but lost to the MQM’s Syed Waqar Shah with a margin of only 202 votes, thanks to, primarily, the gerrymandering in the constituency where the MQM had managed to incorporate some areas, helping the party bag almost all of its votes from three of the 16 localities in the constituency.

“This time the situation will be different because the MQM is not in a position to rig the polls. It is easy for us to win PS-128,” said ASWJ Karachi spokesman Umar Muawiyah. He said Farooqi would also contest from NA-239, a National Assembly constituency comprising areas of Keamari and Baldia Town.

In July, on the Sindh Home Department’s recommendation, a provincial committee had included Farooqi to re-notify him under the Fourth Schedule, a list of “proscribed” individuals suspected of terrorism and/or sectarianism under Section 11EE of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.

However, the victory of the ASWJ-backed Masroor Nawaz Jhangvi – son of the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan’s slain founder Haq Nawaz Jhangvi – whose name was also on the Fourth Schedule, from Jhang’s PP-78 in the by-polls has made the ASWJ confident that the Election Commission of Pakistan would allow Farooqi to contest the elections as well.

Worried over the ongoing crackdown on the party but encouraged by its recent electoral achievements, the ASWJ has been working to transform itself into a national political party, distancing itself from its anti-Shia rhetoric of the past and focusing on parliamentary politics. For this the outfit has been using its political front, the Pakistan Rah-e-Haq Party, a political party registered with the ECP.

Out of the four union committees in PS-128, the PRHP, using Farooqi’s face on banners to draw votes, managed to win slots of chairman in two UCs in the LG polls held in December 2015. In the two remaining UCs, candidates backed by it won.

Unlike Jhang’s PP-78, where Jhangvi won the by-elections, there is no overt sectarian polarisation in PS-128, and despite it, the party has been securing votes from the locals.

“People are not supporting Farooqi because of his anti-Shia rhetoric. It is just that he is a local and a big name, and his party connects with the local people at grassroots level,” said Muhammad Hussain, an elder of the Jadoon community who supported Farooqi in the past polls. “This time we shall vote for him again because we need a bold leader who can resolve our civic issues.”

For its reintegration into mainstream politics, the ASWJ has started negotiating with the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl. But the JUI-F leaders in Sindh, who did not withdraw their PS-128 candidate in the ASWJ’s favour, said the party’s local leadership had objected to working with the sectarian outfit. “After the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal’s revival, we do not need to make an alliance with the ASWJ,” he said.